"Urbanization (or urbanisation) is the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change."
This type of demographic history examines changes in the distribution of people across rural and urban areas over time, including factors such as migration, industrialization, and patterns of urban growth and decline.
"It can also mean population growth in urban areas instead of rural ones."
"It is predominantly the process by which towns and cities are formed and become larger as more people begin living and working in central areas."
"Urbanization refers to the proportion of the total national population living in areas classified as urban, whereas urban growth strictly refers to the absolute number of people living in those areas."
"It is predicted that by 2050 about 64% of the developing world and 86% of the developed world will be urbanized."
"This is predicted to generate artificial scarcities of land, lack of drinking water, playgrounds and so on for most urban dwellers."
"Much of which will occur in Africa and Asia."
"The United Nations has also recently projected that nearly all global population growth from 2017 to 2030 will be by cities, with about 1.1 billion new urbanites over the next 10 years."
"Urbanization is relevant to a range of disciplines, including urban planning, geography, sociology, architecture, economics, education, statistics, and public health."
"The phenomenon has been closely linked to globalization, modernization, industrialization, and the sociological process of rationalization."
"Therefore, urbanization can be quantified either in terms of the level of urban development relative to the overall population, or as the rate at which the urban proportion of the population is increasing."
"Urbanization creates enormous social, economic and environmental challenges..."
"...which provide an opportunity for sustainability with the 'potential to use resources much less or more efficiently, to create more sustainable land use and to protect the biodiversity of natural ecosystems.'"
"However, current urbanization trends have shown that massive urbanization has led to unsustainable ways of living."
"Developing urban resilience and urban sustainability in the face of increased urbanization is at the center of international policy."
"Urbanization is not merely a modern phenomenon, but a rapid and historic transformation of human social roots on a global scale."
"Village culture is characterized by common bloodlines, intimate relationships, and communal behavior, whereas urban culture is characterized by distant bloodlines, unfamiliar relations, and competitive behavior."
"This unprecedented movement of people is forecast to continue and intensify during the next few decades, mushrooming cities to sizes unthinkable only a century ago."
"The world urban population growth curve has up till recently followed a quadratic-hyperbolic pattern."
"Urbanization is a rapid and historic transformation of human social roots on a global scale, whereby predominantly rural culture is being rapidly replaced by predominantly urban culture."