Urban area


An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbanism, the term "urban area" contrasts to rural areas such as villages and hamlets; in urban sociology or urban anthropology, it often contrasts with natural environment.
The development of earlier predecessors of modern urban areas during the urban revolution of the 4th millennium BCE led to the formation of human civilization and ultimately to modern urban planning, which along with other human activities such as exploitation of natural resources has led to a human impact on the environment.

Recent historical growth

In 1950, 764 million people lived in urban areas. In 2009, the number of people living in urban areas surpassed the number living in rural areas, and since then the world has become more urban than rural. By 2014, it was 3.9 billion that lived in urban areas. The change was driven by a combination of increased total population and increased percent of population living in urban areas. This was the first time that the majority of the world's population lived in a city. By that time a high estimate calculated up to 3.5 million square kilometers of land were urban, estimates ranging from 1% of global land area.
In 2014 there were 7.3 billion people living on the planet, 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 occupy 68% of the world population by 2050, with 90% of that growth coming from Africa and Asia.

Urbanization

Urban areas are created and further developed by the process of urbanization. They are measured for various purposes, including analyzing population density and urban sprawl. Urban areas are generally found in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Japan, Australia, and many other countries where the urbanization rate is high.
Unlike an urban area, a metropolitan area includes not only the urban area, but also intervening rural land and satellite cities that are socio-economically connected to the urban area. The urban area serves as the core of a metropolitan area, typically by employment ties through commuting, with the urban area being the primary labor market.
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. This term was first created by Geographer Brian Manning. 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. Any areas less than 200 metres are linked to become a single built-up area.
Argentina and Japan are countries where the urbanization rate is over 90% while Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico, and the United States are countries where the urbanization rate is between 80% and 90%, although within the U.S. state of New Jersey, the urbanization rate is 100%.

Largest urban areas

There are two measures of the degree of urbanization of a population. The first, urban population, describes the percentage of the total population living in urban areas, as defined by the country. The second measure, rate of urbanization, describes the projected average rate of change of the size of the urban population over the given period of time. According to Urbanization by sovereign state article, the world as a whole is 56.2% urbanized, with roughly one-quarter of the countries reported as greater than 80% urbanized. Data is taken from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook estimates from 2020.
According to Demographia, these are the urban areas in the world with a population exceeding 5,000,000 :
Urban AreaCountry/ RegionPopulation
1Guangzhou-ShenzhenChina69,562,000
2Shanghai-ChangzhouChina45,115,000
3Tokyo-YokohamaJapan37,325,000
4JakartaIndonesia36,877,000
5DelhiIndia33,224,000
6MumbaiIndia26,237,000
7ManilaPhilippines25,521,000
8DhakaBangladesh25,305,000
9Seoul-IncheonSouth Korea23,825,000
10CairoEgypt22,684,000
11BeijingChina22,363,000
12São PauloBrazil21,747,000
13KarachiPakistan21,258,000
14New YorkUnited States20,892,000
15KolkataIndia20,327,000
16BangkokThailand20,284,000
17Mexico CityMexico18,942,000
18MoscowRussia18,509,000
19BangaloreIndia16,216,000
20Ho Chi Minh CityVietnam16,024,000
21Buenos AiresArgentina15,933,000
22Los AngelesUnited States15,582,000
23LagosNigeria15,283,000
24Johannesburg-PretoriaSouth Africa15,026,000
25Osaka-Kobe-KyotoJapan14,998,000
26IstanbulTurkey14,749,000
27LahorePakistan14,256,000
28TehranIran14,137,000
29KinshasaDemocratic Republic of the Congo13,060,000
30Rio de JaneiroBrazil12,546,000
31Hangzhou-ShaoxingChina12,422,000
32Shantou-JieyangChina12,187,000
33TianjinChina12,095,000
34ChennaiIndia11,950,000
35LuandaAngola11,892,000
36ChongqingChina11,524,000
37LondonUnited Kingdom11,360,000
38ParisFrance11,282,000
39LimaPeru10,914,000
40BogotaColombia10,734,000
41HyderabadIndia10,101,000
42WuhanChina10,041,000
43Kuala LumpurMalaysia9,899,000
44TaipeiTaiwan9,866,000
45NagoyaJapan9,617,000
46NanjingChina8,929,000
47Dar es SalaamTanzania8,877,000
48ChicagoUnited States8,790,000
49RiyadhSaudi Arabia8,589,000
50Xi'anChina8,313,000
51ChengduChina8,040,000
52AhmedabadIndia7,961,000
53Addis AbabaEthiopia7,922,000
54Shenyang-FushunChina7,768,000
55OnitshaNigeria7,756,000
56KhartoumSudan7,677,000
57Washington-BaltimoreUnited States7,636,000
58BandungIndonesia7,490,000
59Boston-ProvidenceUnited States7,375,000
60NairobiKenya7,264,000
61SantiagoChile7,192,000
62BaghdadIraq7,160,000
63Hong KongHong Kong SAR7,117,000
64Dallas-Fort WorthUnited States6,980,000
65MadridSpain6,966,000
66PuneIndia6,944,000
67Essen-DüsseldorfGermany6,874,000
68ZhengzhouChina6,860,000
69SurabayaIndonesia6,820,000
69YangonMyanmar6,820,000
71HoustonUnited States6,804,000
72AmmanJordan6,694,000
73QuanzhouChina6,487,000
74AbidjanIvory Coast6,461,000
75TorontoCanada6,400,000
76San FranciscoUnited States6,376,000
77AccraGhana5,785,000
78SuratIndia6,601,000
79Xiamen-ZhangzhouChina6,237,000
80MiamiUnited States6,129,000
81SingaporeSingapore6,056,000
82KabulAfghanistan6,009,000
83AlexandriaEgypt5,916,000
84HefeiChina5,875,000
85St. PetersburgRussia5,869,000
86QingdaoChina5,806,000
87HanoiVietnam5,700,000
88PhiladelphiaUnited States5,697,000
89FaisalabadPakistan5,650,000
90AnkaraTurkey5,638,000
91MilanItaly5,631,000
92AtlantaUnited States5,495,000
93BarcelonaSpain5,489,000
94JiddahSaudi Arabia5,482,000
95TaiyuanChina5,371,000
96Belo HorizonteBrazil5,368,000
97MashhadIran5,321,000
98Rawalpindi-IslamabadPakistan5,203,000
99KumasiGhana5,192,000
100MelbourneAustralia5,185,000
101DubaiUnited Arab Emirates5,097,000
102YaoundeCameroon5,095,000
103KampalaUganda5,074,000
104SydneyAustralia5,037,000