Dormitory town Satellite town Urban decay Shanty town
Urbanisation is the increase in the number of people living in towns and cities. This causes a growth in the size and number of towns and cities.
Until about two hundred years ago, most people lived in rural areas and worked the land. Only a small number of people lived in cities and towns. Today, almost 55 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban areas.
ACT VITY
Write down five reasons why more people are now living in urban areas than in the past. Compare your list with the person beside you. Share your list with the class.
Causes of urbanisation
• During the Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, factories in cities became important places of employment. More and more people left the countryside and moved to cities in search of work. It was during this period that the terraced houses found in many of our cities were built for the labourers working in nearby factories.
• More recently, factories have started to locate on the outskirts of towns and cities, often in industrial estates. This has caused the development of residential housing in the suburbs.
: Figure 12.14 Terraced houses in Dublin
• Urban areas become centres for many services. This attracts people to live there and also provides employment in the service sector. Government departments and civil service offices are located here also.
• There is a wide variety of available housing. It can be more affordable to buy a house in a housing estate in a town or city than purchase a site and build a house in a rural area.
• Urban areas attract people because of the variety of recreation and leisure activities available there.
