10.5: Industrial Revolution and Urbanization

Industrial Revolution and Urbanization

Although the urbanization process had already progressed significantly by the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution was a powerful factor accelerating further urbanization, generating new kinds of cities, some of them recording an unprecedented concentration of population. Manchester, for example, was the shock city of European industrialization in the 19th century, growing from a small town of 15,000 inhabitants in 1750 to a world city by 1911 with 2.3 million. Industrialization spread from England to the rest of Europe during the first half of the 19th century and then to different parts of the world. Moreover, followed by successive innovations in transport technology, urbanization increased at a faster pace. The canals, railroads, and steam-powered transportation reoriented urbanization toward the interior of the countries. In North America, the shock city was Chicago, which grew from 4,200 inhabitants in 1837 to 3.3 million in 1930. Its growth as an industrial city followed especially the arrival of the railroads, which made the city a major transportation hub. In the 20th century, the new innovations significantly helped urban development.

By the 19th century, urbanization had become an important dimension of the world-system. The higher wages and greater opportunities in the cities (industry, services) transformed them into a significant pull factor, attracting a massive influx of rural workers. Consequently, the percentage of people living in cities increased from 3 percent in 1800 to 54 percent in 2017.3 In developed countries, 78 percent live in urban areas, compared with 49 percent in developing countries, reflecting the region’s and/or the country’s level of development.

City-Size Distribution

Most developed countries have a higher percentage of urban people, but developing countries have more of the very large urban settlements (Table 1, Figure 12.17). In 1950, out of the world’s 30 largest metropolitan areas, the first three metropolitan areas were in developed countries: New York (U.S.), Tokyo (Japan), and London (UK), two of which (New York and Tokyo) had more than 10 million inhabitants. After 30 years, in 1980, a significant change was recorded. Although metro New York increased from 12.3 million to 15.6 million, Tokyo, with 28.5 million inhabitants, became the largest metropolitan area in the world, a position which the city still maintains. In addition, except for Osaka, the second metropolitan area from Japan, two large metropolitan areas in developing countries were added, Mexico City (Mexico) and Sao Paulo (Brazil). The number of large metropolitan areas continued to increase after 2010, adding more developing countries such as India (Delhi and Mumbai/Bombay), China (Shanghai and Beijing), Bangladesh (Dhaka), and Pakistan (Karachi) from Asia; and Egypt (Cairo), Nigeria (Lagos), and Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa) from Africa. Each of these metropolitan areas is expected to have over 20 million inhabitants after 2020, adding Delhi and Shanghai to the largest metropolitan areas with over 30 million inhabitants. In the United States, New York-Newark is the largest metropolitan area, in which the population was constantly increasing from 12.3 million in 1950 to 15.6 million in 1980 and 18.3 million in 2010, having the potential to reach 20 million in 2030. Yet, unlike the developing countries, characterized by a very fast urban growth rate, the developed countries had recorded a moderate urban growth rate.

Table | The World’s 30 Largest Metropolitan Areas, Ranked by Population Size4 1950, 1980, 2010, 2020, 2025, 2030 (in millions)

Figure | Percentage Urban and Urban Agglomerations Author | United Nations, DESA, Population Division Source | United Nations Population Division License | CC BY 3.0 IGO

The relationship between the size of cities and their rank within an urban system is known as rank-size rule, describing a regular pattern in which the nth-largest city in a country or region is 1/n the size of the largest city. According to the rank-size rule, the second-largest city is one-half the size of the largest, the third-largest city is one-third the size of the largest city, and so on. In the United States, the distribution of settlements closely follows the rank-size rule, but in other countries, the population of the largest city is disproportionately large in relation to the second- and third-largest city in that urban system. These cities are called primate cities (Buenos Aires, for example, is 10 times larger than Rosario, the second largest city in Argentina). Yet, cities do not necessarily have to be primate in order to be functionally dominant (economic, political, cultural) within their urban system. The functional dominance of the city is called centrality. Moreover, some of the largest metropolises, closely integrated within the global economic system and playing key roles beyond their own national boundaries, qualify as world cities. Today, because of the importance of their financial markets and associated business services, London, New York, and Tokyo dominate Europe, the Americas, and Asia, respectively