Urbanization in South America
Urbanization in Latin America
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Contents
I. Introduction 3
II. Urbanization Process 4
III. Internal Migration and Urbanization 8
IV. Urban Systems 10
V. Conclusion 13
VI. Bibliography 14
I. Introduction
Urbanization is likely to be one of the defining phenomena of the 21st Century for Latin America as well as the rest of the developing world. The world as a whole became more urban than rural sometime in 2007, a demographic change that was driven by rapid urbanization in the developing countries. For the Latin American region, this demographic tipping point took place in the early 1960s. According to United Nations estimates, the number of people living in urban areas globally will increase by over one billion between 2007 and 2025. In South American the urban population increase over this time period in a much smaller way – 127 million – but this still represents a 28 percent increase in the region’s urban population in less than 20 years.
II .The Urbanization Process
During the last fifty years the process of urbanization in Latin America has been very remarkable. In 1950 less than 41% of its population lived in urban areas. Nowadays this value reaches almost 75%. The velocity of urbanization was higher in Latin American than in other places like Europe or even North America. As Lattes, Rodriguez and Villa, in 2002, have pointed out:
“It would have taken 75 years (from 1925 to 2000) for the level of urbanization in Northern America to rise from 53.8 to 77.2 percent while Latin America covered the same ground in only half of the time”.
Although there were already in the beginning of the 20th century large cities in Latin America, it showed at the same time few countries with high levels of urbanization. These ones started to increase between 1930 and
Work done by:
Contents
I. Introduction 3
II. Urbanization Process 4
III. Internal Migration and Urbanization 8
IV. Urban Systems 10
V. Conclusion 13
VI. Bibliography 14
I. Introduction
Urbanization is likely to be one of the defining phenomena of the 21st Century for Latin America as well as the rest of the developing world. The world as a whole became more urban than rural sometime in 2007, a demographic change that was driven by rapid urbanization in the developing countries. For the Latin American region, this demographic tipping point took place in the early 1960s. According to United Nations estimates, the number of people living in urban areas globally will increase by over one billion between 2007 and 2025. In South American the urban population increase over this time period in a much smaller way – 127 million – but this still represents a 28 percent increase in the region’s urban population in less than 20 years.
II .The Urbanization Process
During the last fifty years the process of urbanization in Latin America has been very remarkable. In 1950 less than 41% of its population lived in urban areas. Nowadays this value reaches almost 75%. The velocity of urbanization was higher in Latin American than in other places like Europe or even North America. As Lattes, Rodriguez and Villa, in 2002, have pointed out:
“It would have taken 75 years (from 1925 to 2000) for the level of urbanization in Northern America to rise from 53.8 to 77.2 percent while Latin America covered the same ground in only half of the time”.
Although there were already in the beginning of the 20th century large cities in Latin America, it showed at the same time few countries with high levels of urbanization. These ones started to increase between 1930 and
Bibliography: Cerrutti, Marcela and Bertoncello, Rodolfo; “Urbanization and Internal Migration Patterns in Latin America”; 2003 Van Haeften, Roberta; “Urbanization in Latin America and the Carabbean: Trends and Challeges”, 2010 J. Frankman, Myron; "Urbanization and Development in Latin America" Sanchez Rodriguez, Roberto an Bonilla, Adriana; “Urbanization, Global Environmental Change, and Sustainable Development in Latin America”; 2007 Michael Greenfield, Gerard; “Latin American Urbanization: Historical Profiles of Major Cities”; 1995