Urban area

An urban area, or built-up area, is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbanism, the term contrasts to rural areas such as villages and hamlets; in urban sociology or urban anthropology it contrasts with natural environment. The creation of early predecessors of urban areas during the urban revolution led to the creation of human civilization with modern urban planning, which along with other human activities such as exploitation of natural resources led to a human impact on the environment. "Agglomeration effects" are in the list of the main consequences of increased rates of firm creation since. This is due to conditions created by a greater level of industrial activity in a given region. However, a favorable environment for human capital development would also be generated simultaneously.[1]

The world's urban population in 1950 of just 746 million has increased to 3.9 billion in the decades since.[2] In 2009, the number of people living in urban areas (3.42 billion) surpassed the number living in rural areas (3.41 billion), and since then the world has become more urban than rural.[3] This was the first time that the majority of the world's population lived in a city.[4] In 2014 there were 7.2 billion people living on the planet,[5] of which the global urban population comprised 3.9 billion. The Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs at that time predicted the urban population would grow to 6.4 billion by 2050, with 37% of that growth to come from three countries: China, India and Nigeria.[2]

The UN publishes data on cities,urban areas and rural areas, but relies almost entirely on national definitions of these areas. The UN principles and recommendations state that due to different characteristics of urban and rural areas across the globe, a global definition is not possible.[6]



The concept of an "urban area" as used in economic statistics should not be confused with the concept of the "urban area" used in road safety statistics. The last concept is also known as "built-up area in road safety". According to the definition by the Office for National Statistics, "Built-up areas are defined as land which is 'irreversibly urban in character', meaning that they are characteristic of a town or city. They include areas of built-up land with a minimum of 20 hectares (200,000 m2; 49 acres). Any areas [separated by] less than 200 metres [of non-urban space] are linked to become a single built-up area.[7]



European countries[which?] define urbanized areas on the basis of urban-type land use, not allowing any gaps of typically more than 200 metres (220 yd), and use satellite imagery instead of census blocks to determine the boundaries of the urban area. In less-developed countries[which?], in addition to land use and density requirements, a requirement that a large majority of the population, typically 75%, is not engaged in agriculture and/or fishing is sometimes used.[citation needed]

East Asia


Since 2000, China's cities have expanded at an average rate of 10% annually. It is estimated that China's urban population will increase by 292 million people by 2050,[2] when its cities will house a combined population of over one billion.[9] The country's urbanization rate increased from 17.4% to 46.6% between 1978 and 2009.[10] Between 150 and 200 million migrant workers work part-time in the major cities, returning home to the countryside periodically with their earnings.[11][12]

Today, China has more cities with one million or more long-term residents than any other country, including the three global cities of Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai; by 2025, the country will be home to 221 cities with over a million inhabitants.[9] The figures in the table below are from the 2008 census, and are only estimates of the urban populations within administrative city limits; a different ranking exists when considering the total municipal populations (which includes suburban and rural populations). The large "floating populations" of migrant workers make conducting censuses in urban areas difficult;[13] the figures below include only long-term residents.



South Asia





In Pakistan, an area is a major city and municipality if it has more than 100,000 inhabitants according to census results. Cities include adjacent cantonments. Urbanisation in Pakistan has increased since the time of independence and has several different causes. The majority of southern Pakistan's population lives along the Indus River. Karachi is its most populous city.[16] In the northern half of the country, most of the population lives in an arc formed by the cities of Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Gujrat, Jhelum, Sargodha, Sheikhupura, Nowshera, Mardan and Peshawar. During 1990–2008, city dwellers made up 36% of Pakistan's population, making it the most urbanised nation in South Asia. Furthermore, 50% of Pakistanis live in towns of 5,000 people or more.[17] Karachi is the most populated city in Pakistan closely followed by Lahore according to the 2017 Census.


In Bangladesh, there are total 532 urban areas, which are divided into three categories. Those are City Corporation, Municipal Corporation (Pourasova) and Upazila town. Among those urban areas, Dhaka is the largest city by population and area, with a population of 19.10 million.[18] In Bangladesh, there are total 11 City Corporations and 329 Municipal Corporations and 203 Small towns, which serves as the center for Upazilas. According to 2011 population census, Bangladesh has an urban population of 28%, with a growth rate of 2.8%.[19] At this growth rate, it is estimated that the urban population of Bangladesh will reach 79 million or 42% of total population by 2035.

Southeast Asia




In Vietnam, there are 6 types of urban areas:





In France, an urban area (Fr: aire urbaine) is a zone encompassing an area of built-up growth (called an "urban unit" (unité urbaine)[23] – close in definition to the North American urban area) and its commuter belt (couronne). Americans would find the INSEE definition of the urban area[24] to be similar to their metropolitan area, and the INSEE sometimes uses the term aire métropolitaine[25] to refer to the country's largest aires urbaines.

The largest cities in France, in terms of urban area population (2017), are Paris (12,628,266), Lyon (2,323,221), Marseille (1,760,653), Toulouse (1,360,829), Bordeaux (1,247,977), Lille (1,191,117), Nice (1,006,201), Nantes (972,828), Strasbourg (790,087) and Rennes (733,320).[26]


Germany has a number of large cities. The largest conurbation is the Rhine-Ruhr region (11 million in 2008), including Düsseldorf (the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia), Cologne, Bonn, Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, and Bochum.[27]





United Kingdom





In Poland, official "urban" population figures simply refer to those localities which have the status of towns (miasta). The "rural" population is that of all areas outside the boundaries of these towns. This distinction may give a misleading impression in some cases, since some localities with only village status may have acquired larger and denser populations than many many smaller towns.[34] On the other hand, the Upper Silesian Industrial Region covers 3,200 km and has approximately 3 million people.


Moscow, the capital and largest city of Russia, has a population estimated at 12.4 million residents within the city limits,[35] while over 17 million residents in the urban area,[36] and over 20 million residents in the Moscow Metropolitan Area.[37] It is among the world's largest cities, being the most populous city entirely within Europe, the most populous urban area in Europe,[36] the most populous metropolitan area in Europe,[37] and also the largest city by land area on the European continent.[38] Saint Petersburg, the cultural capital, is the second-largest city, with a population of roughly 5.4 million inhabitants.[39] Other major urban areas are Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, and Chelyabinsk.



In Australia, urban areas are referred to as "urban centres" and are defined as population clusters of 1,000 or more people, with a density of at least 200/km2 (518/sq mi)[40] Australia is one of the most urbanised countries in the world, with more than 50% of the population residing in Australia's three biggest urban centres.

New Zealand


North America




United States



The largest urban area in the United States is the New York metropolitan area. The population of New York City, the core of the metropolitan area, exceeds 8.5 million people, its metropolitan statistical area has a population that is over 20 million, and its combined statistical area population is over 23 million. The next seven largest urban areas in the U.S. are Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, and Atlanta.[46] About 82 percent of the population of the United States lives within the boundaries of an urbanized area as of December, 2010.[47] Combined, these areas occupy about 2 percent of the land area of the United States. Many Americans live in agglomerations of cities, suburbs, and towns that are adjacent to a metropolitan area's largest city.[citation needed]

The concept of Urbanized Areas as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau is often used as a more accurate gauge of the size of a city, since in different cities and states the lines between city borders and the urbanized area of that city are often not the same. For example, the city of Greenville, South Carolina has a city population just over 68,000 and an urbanized area population of around 400,000, while Greensboro, North Carolina has a city population just over 285,000 and an urbanized area population of around 300,000 — meaning that Greenville is actually "larger" for some intents and purposes, but not for others, such as taxation, local elections, etc.


South America



Córdoba has around 1.5 million people living in the urban area, while Rosario, Mendoza and Tucumán have around 1.2 million inhabitants each[50] and La Plata, Mar del Plata, Salta and Santa Fe[50][51] have at least 500,000 people each.


According to IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) urban areas already concentrate 84.35% of the population, while the Southeast region remains the most populated one, with over 80 million inhabitants.[52] The largest metropolitan areas in Brazil are São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte — all in the Southeastern Region — with 21, 12, and 5 million inhabitants respectively.[53] In general, state capitals are the largest cities in their states, except for Vitória, the capital of Espírito Santo, and Florianópolis, the capital of Santa Catarina. There are also non-capital metropolitan areas in the states of São Paulo (Campinas, Santos and the Paraíba Valley), Minas Gerais (Steel Valley), Rio Grande do Sul (Sinos Valley) and Santa Catarina (Itajaí Valley).[54]

See also


  1. ^ Baten, Joerg (2003). "Creating Firms for a New Century: Determinants of Firm Creation around 1900" . European Review of Economic History. 7 (3): 301–329. doi:10.1017/S136149160300011X . hdl:10419/76463 . S2CID 51520898 – via EBSCO.
  2. ^ a b c "City population to reach 6.4bn by 2050" . Herald Globe. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  3. ^ "United Nations Population Division – Department of Economic and Social Affairs" .
  4. ^ "Urban population growth" . World Health Organization.
  6. ^ https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/work/2014_01_new_urban.pdf
  7. ^ "2011 Census: Characteristics of Built-Up Areas (4. Introduction)" . Office for National Statistics. 28 June 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  8. ^ "Urban land area (km²)" . Our World in Data. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  18. ^ "Bangladesh Population & Housing Census-2011" (PDF). Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. March 2014. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 December 2015.
  19. ^ Population and Housing Census 2011 - Volume 3: Urban Area Report (PDF), Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Aug 2014
  21. ^ "Locality – Concepts" . Statistics Finland.
  22. ^ "Alueluokkien kuvaukset" . Ymparisto.
  23. ^ "Urban unit" . Definitions, methods and quality. INSEE. October 31, 2016. Retrieved 2019-01-18.
  24. ^ "Urban area" . Definitions, methods and quality. INSEE. October 31, 2016. Retrieved 2019-01-18.
  25. ^ "An administrative segmentation of French territory: 12 metropolitan areas, 29 large urban areas" . INSEE. January 18, 2011. Retrieved 2019-01-18.
  26. ^ "Tableaux de l'économie française, Édition 2020, Villes et communes de France" . INSEE. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  27. ^ "Verdichtungsräume nach Fläche, Bevölkerung und Bevölkerungsdichte am 31.12.2017, im November 2018 wegen korrigierter Bevölkerung revidiert" (in German). Statistisches Bundesamt. 2017. p. 10. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  28. ^ "Fortsatt stor ökning av befolkning i tätorter" . Statistics Sweden. Archived from the original on 2012-01-12. Retrieved 2011-06-24.
  29. ^ KS01 Usual resident population: Census 2001, Key Statistics for urban areas
  34. ^ "Polish official population figures" .
  35. ^ "RUSSIA: Central'nyj Federal'nyj Okrug – Central Federal District" . City Population.de. August 8, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
  37. ^ a b Alexander Akishin (August 17, 2017). "A 3-Hour Commute: A Close Look At Moscow The Megapolis" . Strelka Mag. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
  39. ^ "RUSSIA: Severo-Zapadnyj Federal'nyj Okrug: Northwestern Federal District" . City Population.de. 8 August 2020. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
  40. ^ "1216.0 – Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC), 2001" . Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2001-09-28. Retrieved 2007-10-09.
  44. ^ a b "From urban areas to population centres" Archived 2012-12-13 at the Wayback Machine. Statistics Canada, May 5, 2011.
  46. ^ United States Census Bureau 2010 Census Urban Area List "Archived copy" . Archived from the original on 2012-10-10. Retrieved 2013-05-16.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) 2010 Census Urban Area List. Retrieved May 7, 2013.
  47. ^ [1] – accessed January, 2012
  49. ^ "Field listing – Urbanization" . The World Factbook. CIA.
  54. ^ "Principal Cities" . Encarta. MSN. Archived from the original on 29 October 2009. Retrieved 2008-06-10.[dubious ]

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