Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Grey, and I'm so excited that you've decided to join me to learn geography today.

Today's lesson is in our unit of Cities: what are they like to live in? And the title of today's lesson is The Growth of Cities.

By the end of the lesson, you will be able to explain the process of urban growth and describe the distribution of cities around the world.

There are some key words that we'll come across in today's lesson.

They are urbanisation, natural increase, and rural-to-urban migration.

Urbanisation is an increase in the proportion of people living in towns and cities.

Natural increase is when a population grows because births outnumber deaths.

And rural-to-urban migration is the movement of people from the countryside to towns and cities.

Today's lesson on the growth of cities is split into two learning cycles, the first, how do cities grow and change, and the second learning cycle is where are the world's biggest cities? So let's take a look at the first learning cycle, how do cities grow and change? All settlements are different.

They are different sizes and have different functions.

One measure of size is population, the number of people that are living in that settlement.

Settlements can be ranked by size and function, by how big they are and how they work, what they're used for.

This is called the settlement hierarchy, and this is an image of the settlement hierarchy.

So at the bottom there, we have a hamlet, the next level up, a village, the next level up, a town, then a city, and at the very top, a global city.

Larger settlements offer more services and jobs than the smaller settlements.

A city functions as a regional centre for commerce and industry, providing services not found elsewhere.

So a city has a large population, more varied jobs, different types of public transport, hospitals, schools, and entertainment, whereas a village has few people and a limited range of services, for example, a few shops or one or two schools.

So you can see a big difference there between the services provided by a city and by a village.

So a quick check now then, rank these settlements from largest to smallest.

So we have town, hamlet, city, village, global city.

So I'll put them in order from the largest down to the smallest.

Pause the video, write down your answer, and then come back and let's see how you got on.

Okay, how did you get on? Ranking these settlements from the largest to smallest, and the answer is global city, then city, then town, then village, then hamlet.

The global city is the biggest settlement, and the hamlet is the smallest settlement.

Well done.

Now, urban areas all over the world are growing.

We've got a line graph to have a look at there.

Just take a minute to have a little look at that line graph.

See what you can see.

So this line graph shows the change in urban and rural population by percentage globally from 1980 to 2025.

And we can see the percentage of the population of the side, and the urban population, the percentage of the population that's urban, is shown in blue, and the percentage of the population that's rural is shown in pink.

So the proportion of people living in urban areas compared with rural areas is increasing, and you can see that, can't you? Because the blue line is going up, so the proportion of people living in an urban area is increasing, and at the same time, that rural line, the pink one, the proportion of people living in a rural area, is decreasing.

This is called urbanisation, when the proportion of people living in urban areas compared to rural areas increases.

Now, urbanisation is not just happening in richer countries.

In 2008, for the first time in world history, over 50% of the world's population lived in towns and cities.

And you can see from that bracket, that's continued to increase, the gap has got wider, so we've got more people living in urban areas, more proportion of people living in urban areas than in rural areas, a higher proportion.

So another check for us now.

Why was 2008 a significant year for the world's population? Got a graph there for you to have a look at.

Is it A, over 50% of the world's population lived in urban areas? Is it B, over the 50% of the world's population lived in rural areas? Or is it C, urbanisation began to slow? So pause the video, write down your answer, and then come back and let's see how you got on.

Okay, how did you get on? Why was 2008 a significant year for the world's population? And the answer is A, over 50% of the world's population lived in urban areas.

Did you get that right? Well done.

Now, urban areas grow for different reasons.

And there's two main reasons for urban growth, are rural-to-urban migration and natural increase.

And we're gonna look at each of those two things now in a little bit more detail.

So rural-to-urban migration is when people move from the countryside to towns and cities.

So people move from countryside areas and move into towns and cities, that's rural-to-urban migration.

They're migrating from a rural area into an urban area.

Rural-to-urban migration happens all over.

And we can see here in London, and we've got an example of people moving from the countryside into London, so in the countryside, surrounding it, into London, which is the capital of the UK, that's an example of where rural-to-urban migration is happening.

Motorways, airports, railways, and the tube give easy access to jobs and services in London, which is a reason why people are wanting to live there.

You can see an image there of the tube, which gives people the ability to transport easily from one place to another in London, and you can see an OS map there of London.

You can see the airports, there's a little grey symbol with an aeroplane that shows the airports, and you can see lots and lots and lots of roads.

There's a very big broad network, blue lines and motorways.

And then we can see the air roads are the green lines.

Lots and lots of transport in and around London.

Jobs in a variety of industries also attract people to cities.

In London, banks, technology companies, the National Health Service, and the tourist industry are all really big employers.

So lots of people want to move to London and live in London for access to all of those different jobs and all those different industries.

Another check for us now then.

True or false: good transport links can encourage rural-to-urban migration? Is that true or false? So pause the video, write down your answer, and then come back and let's see how you got on.

Okay, how did you get on? True or false: good transport links can encourage rural-to-urban migration? That's true.

Why is it true? Good transport links lead to rural-to-urban migration because they give easy access to jobs and services, making an area more attractive for people to live and work.

Did you get that right? Well done.

So let's take a look at natural increase now then.

We've looked at rural-to-urban migration, now we're gonna look at natural increase.

So natural increase is when there are more births than deaths.

Yeah, that the birth rate is higher than the death rate.

And when that happens, when the birth rate is greater than the death rate, then the population gets bigger.

Yeah, because more people are being born than are dying, and therefore, there's gonna be more people, and that is called natural increase.

So another check now.

True or false: when the birth rate is higher than the death rate, the population increases? Is that true or false? Pause the video, write down your answer, and then come back and let's see how you got on.

Okay, how did you get on? True or false: when the birth rate is higher than the death rate, the population increases? That is true.

Why is it true? When more people are being born than are dying, the number of people in the population grows because more people are added to the population than are being taken away.

This is called natural increase.

Did you get that right? Well done.

Right, so now we're onto our first practise task of the lesson, and this is your task.

Use the graph to compare the global population change in rural and urban areas.

So we've seen this graph already showing the proportion of people living in rural and urban areas, so have a good look at this graph and use it to compare global population change in rural and urban areas.

So pause the video, make sure you have a really good look at the graph, write down your answer, and then come back and let's see how you got on.

Okay, how did you get on then? Let's have a look.

So use the graph to compare the global population change in rural and urban areas.

So your answer may include, you might have written, "Rural population has decreased over time, while the urban population has increased." Now, you can see that on the graph, can you? You can see the pink line of the rural population decreasing and the urban population increasing over time.

You may also have written, "Rural population was higher than urban population in 1980, but in 2020, urban population was higher." And that's a really, really good thing to write because that's using figures, that's using actual data from the graphs, so well done if you wrote that down.

You also may have written, "In 2008, urban population overtook rural population," and that's making a really, really good comparison.

How did you get on? What did you write down? Did you write all of those? Well done.

So now, we're on to our second learning cycle of the lesson, which is where are the world's biggest cities? Our cities are growing, but some places are growing faster than others.

We've got a graph here, a line graph to show the percentage urban populations for different country groups.

Urbanisation in high-income countries started earlier.

This now shows middle and lower-income countries.

Low-income and middle-income countries still have lots of people living in rural areas, but their towns and cities are now growing really, really quickly.

Another check for our lesson now then.

True or false: low-income countries are experiencing the slowest rates of urbanisation? Is that true or false? So pause the video, write down your answer, and then come back and let's see how you got on.

Okay, how did you get on? True or false: low-income countries are experiencing the slowest rates of urbanisation? That's false.

Why is it false? So low-income countries still have lots of people living in rural areas, but their cities are now growing more quickly than those in middle-income countries or high-income countries.

Did you get that right? Well done.

Cities with a population of 10 million people or more are called megacities.

In 1950, there were two megacities: Tokyo and New York.

By 1975, there were four megacities: New York; Tokyo; Mexico City; and Sao Paulo.

I can see them with the little dots on the map there, highlighting where they are.

Where are the most megacities found in 2020? We've got a map here showing all the different megacities.

Where are most of the megacities found? Most megacities are found in Asia.

Another check for our lesson now then.

In 2020, which continent had the most megacities? Is it A, Europe, B, Africa, C, North America, or D, Asia? Pause the video, write down your answer, and then come back and let's see how you got on.

Okay, how did you get on? In 2020, which continent had the most megacities? And the answer was D, Asia.

Did you get that right? Well done.

The location of the world's biggest megacities has changed over time.

So in the past, most of the world's biggest cities were in high-income countries, including the USA, the UK, France, and Japan.

Today, many of the biggest cities are in low and middle-income countries, such as China, India, and Brazil.

Shanghai, which is in China, and Mumbai, which is in India, are megacities.

You can see some images of those two cities there on the screen, Shanghai and Mumbai.

We're now onto our final task of the lesson then.

So question one, use a map or an atlas to label these nine megacities.

So on the map, there are nine dots of megacities, and you need to use a map or an atlas to label them.

Question two, identify and correct the five mistakes in this paragraph.

So in this paragraph, there were five mistakes.

You need to identify them and correct them.

So this is what the paragraph says: "Urbanisation in high-income countries started later.

In LICs and MICs, many people still live in rural areas, but their cities are growing slowly.

In 1950, the only megacities were New York and London.

By 1975, there were four: New York; Tokyo; Mexico City; and Sao Paulo.

In 2020, there were 39, mostly in Europe.

In the past, the smallest cities were in HICs, like the USA, UK, and Japan.

Now, many are in MICS and LICs, like China, India, and Brazil." So there are five mistakes in that paragraph.

You need to find where the mistakes are and correct them.

So pause the video, complete these two tasks, and then come back and let's see how you got on.

Okay, how did you get on? So question one was use a map or atlas to label these nine megacities.

How many of them did you get? Can you see them on the screen? So we've got Los Angeles, Mexico City, Rio De Janeiro, Lagos, Moscow, Beijing, Mumbai, Manila, and Tokyo.

Did you get all of those? Well done.

Now, task two was to identify and correct the five mistakes in this paragraph.

So let's see how many of them you've got.

"Urbanisation in high-income countries started earlier.

In LICs and MICs, many people still live in rural areas, but their cities are growing quickly.

In 1950, the only megacities were New York and Tokyo.

By 1975, there were four: New York; Tokyo; Mexico City; and Sao Paulo.

In 2020, there were 39, mostly in Asia.

In the past, the biggest cities were in HICs, like the USA, UK, and Japan.

Now, many are in NICs and LICs, like China, India, and Brazil." Did you manage to find all those mistakes and correct them? Well done.

So we're at the end of our lesson now on the growth of cities.

Let's have a little look at what we've learned today.

The settlement hierarchy explains how settlements range from small villages to global cities based on size and function.

Urbanisation is the increase in the proportion of people living in towns and cities.

The location of the biggest cities in the world has changed over time from high-income countries to low and middle-income countries.

The two main causes of urbanisation are rural-to-urban migration and natural increase within urban populations.

By 2008, over 50% of the world's population lived in towns and cities.

Thank you for joining me for today's geography lesson.

I've really enjoyed it, and I hope you have too.

I'll see you next time.