ECON 376: THE BIG PICTURE
Table 2.1 Percentage of Population Living in Urban Areas
|
|
1300 |
1500 |
1700 |
1800 |
1900 |
1950 |
1980 |
2000 |
|
World |
9.0 |
9.4 |
9.8 |
9.0 |
16.0 |
25.6 |
37.6 |
44% |
|
Africa |
4.0 |
5.0 |
3.9 |
4.0 |
5.5 |
12.0 |
25.2 |
|
|
North & South America |
8.2 |
8.4 |
11.4 |
12.3 |
28.5 |
47.9 |
63.8 |
|
|
Asia |
10.2 |
10.7 |
10.9 |
9.1 |
9.3 |
14.9 |
25.6 |
|
|
Europe |
9.5 |
9.6 |
10.8 |
10.4 |
30.2 |
42.9 |
64.2 |
Source: Page 10, The Economics
of Cities and Suburbs by W.T. Bogart; Prentice-Hall, 1998; adapted from
Bairoch, 1988, Table 31.1, p. 495. Notes:
1. A minimum of
5,000 is used as the criterion for an urban population.
2. The extent of
urbanization is limited by the food surplus available to the city (land use is
excludable, and transport is costly) .
This was very obvious before the Industrial Revolution, but it continues
to be true today. Modern transportation
is so cheap that there do not appear to be any effective limits on the size of
a modern city. Think of the Los Angeles
area. But cities still have boundaries
nowadays, because (thank goodness) the world is not so populated that we must
all live elbow-to-elbow. There is so
much room that there is still plenty of empty space. (That’s good!) And, there
are other good reasons why we don’t all live in one place.
2. Asia was more
urbanized than all other regions before the Industrial revolution because rice,
its local food crop, can be harvested 3 times/year; and more calories per
hectare can be produced in rice than in wheat, for example:
traditional rice: 2 crops per year, times 1600kg/ha yield, times 3600
calories/kg = 11,520,000 calories/hectare/year ; divided by 1000cal/person =
11,520 non-farmers per rice-farmed hectare (IF there are NO storage losses)
traditional wheat: 1 crop per year, times 600kg/ha yield, times 3400
calories/kg = 2,040,000 calories/hectare/year; divided by 1000cal/person =
2,040 non-farmers per wheat-farmed hectare (IF there are NO storage losses)
=> Traditional Asian rice farm societies can support five times as
many city people as European or African wheat farming societes.
4. The Industrial
Revolution was actually based on a revolution in agricultural production:
farmers in Holland, Belgium, and England developed intensive farming methods
that dramatically increased yields per hectare. This allowed for the release of labor from farming. People had more time to make other things,
like clothing and tools and then machines and even factories. New power sources were harnessed, such as
coal. The reduced need to plant feed
for animals helped expand cities. And
the new machines included new modes of transportation. Lower transport costs meant that non-farmers
in residences farther and farther from farms now obtain food without having to
devote land to farming themselves.
5. Urbanization has
been associated with a dramatic increase in the quality of human life.
longevity increased from 40 years to
80 years
literacy increased from 5% to 95%
infant mortality has declined from 75% (dead before age 5) to 5%