Why is Defining “Urban” and “Rural” Difficult? It is difficult to compare countries based on the percentage of urban population since many countries have different definitions of what size population is necessary to make a community "urban." In Sweden and Denmark, a village of 200 people is counted as an "urban" population but it takes a city of 30,000 in Japan. Most other countries fall somewhere in between. Australia and Canada use 1000, Israel and France use 2000 and the United States and Mexico call a town of 2500 residents urban. Due to these differences, we have a problem with comparisons. Let us assume that in Japan and in Denmark there are 100 villages of 250 people each. In Denmark, all of these 25,000 people are counted as "urban" residents but in Japan, the residents of these 100 villages are all "rural" populations. Similarly, a single city with a population of 25,000 would be an urban area in Denmark but not in Japan. Japan is 78% and Denmark is 85% urbanized. Unless we are aware of what size of a population makes an area urban we can not simply compare the two percentages and say "Denmark is more urbanized than Japan." Below is a table with some countries, the minimum population which makes an area urban and the percent of the country which is "urbanized." Notice that some countries with a higher minimum population have a lower percentage of urbanized population. Country Sweden Min. Pop. 200 Urban Pop. 83% Denmark 200 85% South Africa 500 57% Australia 1000 85% Canada 1000 77% Israel 2000 90% France 2000 74% United States Mexico 2500 2500 75% 71% Belgium 5000 97% Iran 5000 58% Nigeria 5000 16% Spain 10,000 64% Turkey 10,000 63% Japan 30,000 78% Rosenburg, Matt, ed. "What's an Urban Area." About Geography. New York Times, 09 Jun 1997. Web. 24 Sep 2012. <http://geography.about.com/library/ weekly/aa060997.htm>. ®SAISD Social Studies Department Page 1 Reproduction rights granted only if copyright information remains intact. Rural Area What is it? What does it look like? Urban Area What is it? What does it look like? ®SAISD Social Studies Department Page 2 Reproduction rights granted only if copyright information remains intact. Rural Area Push Factor Push Factor Push Factor Urban Area Effect Effect ®SAISD Social Studies Department Effect Page 3 Reproduction rights granted only if copyright information remains intact. Urban Centers - Global Perspective ®SAISD Social Studies Department Page 4 Reproduction rights granted only if copyright information remains intact. Urban Centers - Global Perspective ®SAISD Social Studies Department Page 5 Reproduction rights granted only if copyright information remains intact. Geographical Conclusions Based on the information from the first map, we conclude... Based on the information from the second map, we conclude... Based on the information from both maps, we conclude... ®SAISD Social Studies Department Page 6 Reproduction rights granted only if copyright information remains intact. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population Rank City State Population Population Density 1 New York New York 8,405,837 27,012 per sq mi 10,430 km−2 2 Los Angeles California 3,884,307 8,092 per sq mi 3,124 km−2 3 Chicago Illinois 2,718,782 11,842 per sq mi 4,572 km−2 4 Houston[ Texas 2,195,914 3,501 per sq mi 1,352 km−2 5 Philadelphia Pennsylvania 1,553,165 11,379 per sq mi 4,394 km−2 6 Phoenix Arizona 1,513,367 2,798 per sq mi 1,080 km−2 7 San Antonio Texas 1,409,019 2,880 per sq mi 1,112 km−2 8 San Diego California 1,355,896 4,020 per sq mi 1,552 km−2 9 Dallas Texas 1,257,676 3,518 per sq mi 1,358 km−2 10 San Jose California 998,537 5,359 per sq mi 2,069 km−2 11 Austin Texas 885,400 2,653 per sq mi 1,024 km−2 12 Indianapolis Indiana 843,393 2,270 per sq mi 876 km−2 13 Jacksonville Florida 842,583 1,120 per sq mi 433 km−2 14 San Francisco California 837,442 17,179 per sq mi 6,633 km−2 15 Columbus Ohio 822,553 3,624 per sq mi 1,399 km−2 16 Charlotte North Carolina 792,862 2,457 per sq mi 949 km−2 17 Fort Worth Texas 792,727 2,181 per sq mi 842 km−2 18 Detroit Michigan 688,701 5,144 per sq mi 1,986 km−2 19 El Paso Texas 674,433 2,543 per sq mi 982 km−2 20 Memphis Tennessee 653,450 2,053 per sq mi 793 km−2 ®SAISD Social Studies Department Page 7 Reproduction rights granted only if copyright information remains intact.