Concept in Definition ABC

The term megalopolis is a relatively recent term that is used to designate large urban areas with very significant population numbers. Unlike what could be think, the concept of a megalopolis normally encompasses several nearby cities that together represent an important contribution to the population and movement economic for the region in which they are located. The best known megalopolises are, for example, those in eastern USA (where New York is located), Tokyo and São Paulo.

For a region or a group of cities to be considered a megalopolis, one of the main elements that must characterize it It is the presence of more than 10 million people, which already speaks of a number of inhabitants much higher than the average of the cities. In this sense, some few cities can reach this number by themselves while others reach it by adding to their territory the suburbs that can sometimes be better quality of life and in other cases worse. For example, New York City in the United States has a

population 8 million people, but if metropolitan areas are added to this, the number is higher. On the contrary, the city of São Paulo in Brazil already has eleven million inhabitants by itself, a figure that rises to 19 million if the metropolitan area is included.

Megacities are a deeply current phenomenon due to the very important population increase that during the 20th century and the beginning of the 19th century experienced the Humanity. This has to do with technological improvements and advances in medicine that make a large part of the population live longer, at the same time as the transition from rural areas to urban areas appear as a typical characteristic of our time due to the better opportunities labor, to the cultural diversity and to the best living conditions. Thus, while in some countries, while a large part of the territory is sparsely populated, the cities concentrate a large part of the total population of the space.

Themes in Megalopolis