Urbanization: Definition, Data and Measurement

1.1 Background
The word urbanization is a multifaceted term and requires a clear understanding by aresearcher. The basic
struggle faced by the researcher is to make distinction between the statistical problems involved in the
actual measurement of urbanization in its static and dynamic senses. Thus, the present module will try to
understand the problems related to various definitionsof urban area, sources of urban data as well as the
measurement of urbanization (including tempo, degree, and scale of urbanization). In short, if
urbanization is to be studied quantitatively and comparatively, it will be necessary to develop both the
metrics which allow observation, quantification, and assessment of the process across space and through
time.
Hence, for instance, attempting to develop internationally applicable measures of the level of urbanization
is difficult by the diverse criteria used in national definition of urban which are currently employed by
different countries. As the definition of urban area varies from country to country, and with periodic
reclassification, it can also vary within one country overtime, making direct comparisons difficult. An
urban area can be defined by one or more criteria in different parts of the world.It may be based on
administrative or political boundaries, a threshold population size, population density, economic function,
or a presence of urban characteristics (e.g. paved streets, electric lightening, sewerage etc.).Therefore, to
draw the line between urban and rural can be a complex task.
To highlight the variation, urban definition of few major countries has been discussed here. To begin
with, the United States Census Bureau uses criteria including a) Total population threshold b) Density c)
Land use, and d) Distance. Census blocks are the building blocks for urban areas. In Census 2000, the
Census Bureau expanded the classification to include two types of urban areas:

Figure 1: US Bureau criteria for urban areas

Source: Data above

a) Total population: Firstly, the Urbanized area (UA) of 50,000 or more people and secondly, the Urban
Cluster (UC) of at least 2500 but less than 50,000 people. Rural encompasses all population, where
housing territory is not included within the urban area.
b) Density: In order for a block to quantify as urban, it must have a density of 1000 people per square
mile.
c) Land use: A block containing non-residential urban land uses can be included as urban area if it has a
high amount of impervious surface, and is within a quarter mile of the urban area.
d) Distance: The Census Bureau recognizes that there are instances where urban development is not
continuous, but perhaps should be included in a representation of an urban area. For example, a housing
subdivision may be separated from another urban development by a large regional park, a shopping centre
or other commercial development, or even a small farm. In order to accommodate these real-world
instances in patterns of urban development, hop and jump criteria are applied. The hop criteria allows for
areas up to half a mile along a road corridor (with multiple hops) to be included. The jump criteria allows
for the inclusion of areas up to 2.5 miles, but only one jump along a road (www.census.gov0.
European countries define urbanized area on the basis of urban-type land use, where any gaps of typically
more than 200 metres are not allowed. These areas also use satellite imagery instead of census blocks to
determine the boundaries of the urban area.
In Australia, urban areas are referred to as urban centres and are defined as the population cluster of
10,000 or more people, with a density of at least 2000/km2.
According to Statistic Canada, an urban area in Canada is an area with a population at least 1000 people
where the density is not less than 400 persons per square kilometre. If two or more urban areas are within
2 km of each other by road, they are merged into a single urban area, provided they do not cross census
metropolitan area or census agglomeration boundaries. Moreover, in the Canada 2011 Census, statistics
Canada redesignated urban areas with the new term “population centre”. The new term was chosen in
order to better reflect the fact that urban vs rural is not a strict division, but rather a continuum within
which several distinct settlement patterns may exist.
In the case of Census of India 2011, the definition of urban area adopts three main themes:
1) Statutory criteria: All places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town
area committee, etc.
2) Demographic criteria: All other places which satisfies the following are considered as urban:
a) A minimum population of 5,000;
b) At least 75% of the male main working population is engaged in non-agricultural pursuits;
and
c) A density of population of at least 400 persons per square kilometer

3) Discretionary criteria: Beside the major project colonies, areas of industrial development, railway
colonies, and important tourist destinations are also treated as urban even though they might not
fulfill the above criteria strictly.
 Figure 2: Main themes in India to adopt urban area
Source: Data above

In the following section, we will discuss the selected measures of demographic dimension of
urbanization (the degree of urbanization, Tempo of urbanization and scale of urbanization).

1.2 Degree (or level) of Urbanization: The degree of urbanization usually refers to the absolute or
relative number of people who live in urban places. Two kinds of indices have been developed for
measuring the degree of urbanization: first, those based on proportion of people living in places defined
as urban, and second, those relating to the absolute size of the cities of a country.

Percent of population in urban places: The percent of population in urban places has been the most
commonly used index for measuring the degree of urbanization. Thus U and P represent the Urban and
Total Population of a country, the percent of population in urban places is simply calculated as

𝐏𝐔 = 𝐔⁄𝐏 ∗ 𝟏𝟎𝟎

According to census 2011 of India

Total population (P) = 1210569573
Total Urban Population (U)= 377106125
377106125
PU= 1210569573*100

= 31.15

This index is popular because it is very easy to calculate and interpret, and also because of the relative
availability of the needed data. It depicts that the higher the percentage of urban population to total
population, the higher will bethe level of urbanization.

Ratio of Urban-Rural Population: The ratio of urban to rural population should be considered asit
measures another aspect of urbanization process. This index is as simple as the percent of total population
urban and is closely related to it where, the proportion of population urban tells us the relative number of
persons in a country. In symbols, the urban-rural population ratio may be expressed as
𝐔
⋃𝐑 =
𝐑
Where, UR is the Urban-rural ratio, and U and R are the urban and the rural populationrespectively. For
example,
Urban population (2011) = 377106125
Rural Population (2011) = 833463448
377106125
𝐔𝐑 =
833463448
= 0.45
This index has a lower limit of zero when the whole population is rural; it is onewhen 50 percent of the
population is rural, thus indicating the existence of one urbanite for each rural person. This index is useful
for estimating changes in urbanization process. The disadvantages of this index is that this index is also
affected by changes and differences in the definition of urbanas seen in the case ofpercent urban.
Size of locality of residence of the median inhabitant: This index establishes the size of the locality where
the median inhabitant lives. The concept is similar to that of median age except that this index employs
the size of cities rather than age. That is, if the population of the country is ordered according to the size
of the localities where people live from the largest to the smallest or vice-verse, and a rank is assigned to
each inhabitant from number one to the total population number, the index would represent the size of the
locality inhabited by the person occupying the middle rank.
𝟓𝟎 − 𝐏𝐏𝐢
𝐌𝐈 = 𝐐𝐢 + (𝐐𝐢+𝟏 − 𝐐𝐢 )
𝐏𝐏𝐢+𝟏 − 𝐏𝐏𝐢

Where, PPi is the cumulative percent of population for the locality size category just under 50 percent, PP
i+1is the cumulative percent of the next locality-size category, and Qi and Q i+1 are the upper limits of the
locality-size categories I and i+1, respectively. For illustrative computation of size of locality of residence
of median inhabitant:

Localities size Population Percent Percent cumulative

categories distribution
Total 37, 511, 420 100
<1000 11,347,314 30.25 30.25
1000-2499 6, 431, 444 17.15 47.40
2500-4999 3, 077, 131 8.20 55.60
5000-99,999 9, 341, 214 24.90 80.50
10,000 and over 7, 314, 317 19.50 100

MI= 2499+ (4299-2499) 50-47.40/55.60-47.40)

= 3292
While interpreting this index, it is assumed that the higher the size of median inhabitant, the higher will be
the level of urbanization. Thus, index takes into account the actual size of the locality while determining
the degree of urbanization. It is however, observed that the value of the index can vary over the time or
between countries solely because of city size distribution. Besides, this index cannot be calculated in case
of those units where the percent of population in rural areas is above 50 percent and no classification of
rural localities exists (Arriaga, 1975).
Mean City Population Size: Another way to measure the degree of urbanization is to obtain an average of
the size of cities where the population resides. The statistical concept of this index is the expected value
of the size of the cities. According to the statistical concept of expected value, the mean city population
size is expressed as
𝐌𝐂 = 𝐄(𝐂𝐢 ) = 𝛆 𝐩𝐢 𝐯𝐢
Where E (Ci) represents the expected value of the size of the cities, pi is the probability that a randomly
selected person lives in city Ci, and viis the size of the city. The probability pi is equal to the population
living in the particular city Ci divided by the total population of the country p. Since the population living
in a particular city is also the size of the city both the variable value and the city population are the same,
and can be represented by the same symbol Ci. Therefore, since

vi= Ci and Pi =Ci/p

𝐦
∑𝐢=𝟏 𝐂𝐢𝟐
𝐌𝐂 =
𝐩
Where Ci is the population of the city i, p is the total population of the country, and m is the total number
of localities.

1.3 Tempo of urbanization:

The concept of tempo of urbanization refers to the change in the degree of urbanization during a period of
time. If the degree of urbanization is measured by the percent of population living in urban places, the
urban-rural ratio by the city size of the median inhabitant, or by the mean city size, the speed of
urbanization would be the change registered in these indices over a period of time. When the degree of
urbanization is measured in terms of percent urban, the tempo can be measured either as the absolute
change in percentage points or as the rate of change in the percent of population urban between two dates.
Annual change of percentage points: To measure the tempo of urbanization as an absolute annual change
in percentage points, we calculate
TA= 1/n (PU t+n– PUt)
Where TA is the tempo of urbanization, n is the number of years, and PU is the percent of population
urban at the year’s t and t+n.
For example:
Percent urban in India 2011=31.15
Percent Urban in India 2001=27.78
1
Tempo of urbanization = 10
(31.15-27.78)
= 0.34 percent

Difference of urban and rural rates: This refers to the rate of change in the number of people living in
urban localities in relation to the people living in rural areas. It can be presented under four different
hypotheses concerning the changes in the ratio of urban to rural population, i.e. arithmetic or linear,
geometric, exponential, and hyperbolic. But, linear and exponential are frequently used.
1 𝑈𝑅𝑡+𝑛
Linear: W=𝑛 ( 𝑈𝑅𝑡
− 1) *100
1 𝑈𝑅𝑡+𝑛
Exponential: W= *ln ( − 1) *100
𝑛 𝑈𝑅𝑡

Change in size of place of residence of the median inhabitant: If the degree of urbanization is measured
by index of place of residence of the median inhabitant, the tempo of urbanization is considered the
annual average rate of exponential change in that index. In symbols
𝐭+𝐧
𝟏 𝐌𝐈
𝐓𝐌𝐈 = ⋅ 𝟏𝐧
𝟏𝟕𝐧 𝐌𝐈 𝐭

Change in the mean city population size: In this method, the change can be decomposed into two
components: the percent of population taken as urban, and the size of the localities considered urban.
Since the index of mean city population size is a result of these two products, and the products can be
transformed into two addends by taking logarithm. Therefore, the contribution of each component can be
easily analysed. It can be expressed in the same way as mean city population size discussed earlier in
degree of urbanization.
𝟏 𝐌𝐂 𝐭+𝐧
𝐓𝐌𝐂 = ⋅ 𝐥𝐧
𝐧 𝐌𝐂 𝐭

1.4 Scale of Urbanization:

A measure of scale of urbanization is another frequently used measurement of urbanization. It expresses
two properties simultaneously: i) the distribution of the urban population among the various size classes
of urban units and ii) the same distribution with the number in each size class considered as a proportion
of the total population of the country. The formula for the measure of scale of urbanization is:
Su= ∑XY

Where, Su is the measure,

X is the proportion of the urban population in units above a certain size (e.g. above 4,999), and
Y is the proportion of the total population in the same units
As such, the two variables, X and Y, are mathematically independent within certain limits, e.g. if the
value of X for a given size class is .99, Y could assume any value from less than .001 to .999.

The above measure of scale of urbanization has three merits. First, unlike the degree of urbanization, it
considers the distribution of both the total and the urban population. Second, although the use of size
classes introduces an arbitrary element (i.e. different cutting points could alter the value of measure), and
makes it necessary to use the same classes for all countries, the measure can be applied to individual
urban units arranged in a size hierarchy, and thereby escape any arbitrary distinction other than the
minimum limit. Third, in any given case there is a fixed minimum and maximum value for the measure,
which facilities its interpretation. The minimum values approach .000 and the maximum is 1.000 (N),
where N is the number of size classes.

Figure 3: Merits of scale of urbanization

Source: Data above

1.5 Summing up

This module elaboarated the definition of urban as followed in several countries of the world. It may be
noted that there is no uniform definition of urban, and it is left to the country to define urban. To define
urban is important to count the urban population, and measure the process of urbanisation. This section
presents various measurement of the process of urbanisation.

References:
1) Ratcliffe M., Burd C. , Holder K. & Fields A. (2016) Defining Rural at the U.S. Census Bureau ,
American Community Survey and Geography Brief. US Census Bureau. Retrieved from
https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/reference/ua/Defining_Rural.pdf.

2) Jack ,P. Gibbs (1966) “Measures of Urbanization”, Social Forces, Vol. 45, No. 2 , pp. 170-177.

3) Sivaramakrishnan, K. C, Kundu, A. And Singh, B.N. (2007) Handbook of Urbanization in India,

Oxford University Press.