The urbanization of the world's population.

The urbanization of the world's population.

From Geography Matters by Chris Hamnett

December 22, 2025 · 36 min · Season 2 · Episode 7

About this episode

This episode discusses the rapid urbanization of the world's population and its historical context.

The world is undergoing a process of rapid urbanization - the movement of population from rural to urban areas. This is very important because it means that an increasing share of the world's population now live in cities The UN estimated in 2007 that half (50%) the world population now lives in cities and maybe 70%+ by the end of this century. This is a dramatic change from the world of our ancestors which was still overwhelmingly rural. The urban population was still only 30% of the world total in 1950. In China the process has been extremely rapid going from about 15% urban in 1950 to 65%+ in 2025. 75 years ago 85% of China's population lived in rural areas. But although urbanization has speeded up rapidly in recent decades it started a long time ago. It really took off in Britain about 1800 at the start of the industrial revolution During the c19th the population of London rose from 1 million in 1801 to 6.5 million in 1901 and the population of Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and other industrial cities rapidly exploded. A similar process took place in the USA in the late c19th and early C20th as cities like New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Detroit rapidly expanded…

People in this episode

Host: Chris Hamnett

Topics covered

  • urbanization
  • population movement
  • cities
  • rural to urban
  • global development
  • historical growth

Keywords

  • urbanization
  • population
  • cities
  • rural areas
  • industrial revolution
  • China
  • mega cities
  • global south

Mentioned in this episode

Places: China, London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, USA, New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh

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