urbanisation and megacities

Answer: Urbanisation is the increase in the proportion of a country's population living in urban areas (towns and cities) rather than rural areas (1 mark). It is caused by rural-urban migration (people moving from countryside to city) and natural increase (births exceeding deaths within urban populations) (1 mark).

Answer: Urbanisation is the increase in the proportion of a country's population living in urban areas (towns and cities) rather than rural areas (1 mark). It is caused by rural-urban migration (people moving from countryside to city) and natural increase (births exceeding deaths within urban populations) (1 mark).

Answer: Push factors drive people away from rural areas - low agricultural wages, lack of services (healthcare, education, electricity), drought and famine, and lack of employment opportunities (1 mark). For example, in many LICs, rural farmers earn less than $2 per day, pushing them to seek better incomes in cities (1 mark). Pull factors attract people to urban areas - better employment prospects in industry and services, higher wages, better healthcare and education, and access to services like electricity and clean water (1 mark). Migrants weigh up both sets of factors and decide that the benefits of city life outweigh the disadvantages of staying in rural areas (1 mark).

Answer: Most megacities are now in LICs and NEEs because these countries are experiencing the most rapid urbanisation (1 mark). HICs are already highly urbanised (over 75%) and their urban growth has slowed, meaning their cities grow slowly if at all (1 mark). LICs and NEEs have high rates of rural-urban migration as people are pushed from the countryside by poverty and pulled to cities by job opportunities (1 mark). Natural increase is high in LIC/NEE cities because migrants are young adults with high birth rates, and improved urban healthcare has reduced death rates (1 mark). Economic growth in NEEs like China and India has concentrated industrial jobs in cities, attracting millions of workers (1 mark). Globalisation has directed foreign investment to large cities in NEEs, creating employment that fuels further urban growth (1 mark).

Answer: I agree that natural increase is very significant, accounting for approximately 60% of urban population growth in LICs and NEEs (1 mark). This is because migrants are predominantly young adults of childbearing age, leading to high urban birth rates (1 mark). Improved healthcare in cities reduces death rates, widening the gap between births and deaths and increasing natural growth (1 mark). In Lagos, natural increase alone adds 2.6% to the population annually (1 mark). However, migration is also a crucial driver, accounting for about 40% of urban growth (1 mark). Without migration, cities would not have the young populations that generate high natural increase - migration and natural increase are interlinked (1 mark). In some cities, migration is the dominant cause - Dhaka's explosive growth from 1.5 million to 22 million was initially driven by mass rural-urban migration (1 mark). Migration also contributes indirectly to natural increase by bringing young adults to cities (1 mark). The relative importance varies between cities and over time - migration may dominate during early urbanisation, while natural increase becomes more significant once a large urban population is established (1 mark). In conclusion, while natural increase contributes more to overall urban growth numerically, migration is the catalyst that creates the conditions for natural increase, making both essential and interdependent causes of urban growth (1 mark).