Urban and Rural Zone

One way to classify the geographic space consists of differentiating two zones, the urban and the rural. Obviously, urban areas refer to the idea of ​​city or city, while the term rural refers to life in the country.

Urban zone

Although there is no single type of city, it is possible to establish some common features to all urban areas or spaces. For a town to be officially considered a city it is necessary that it exceed a certain number of inhabitants (for example, in Spain the nuclei of population that exceed 10,000 inhabitants, while in France the figure is 2,000 inhabitants).

From a point of view morphologic, a city is an agglomeration of buildings with different purposes. Functionally, a city is a population center in which all kinds of activities take place and at large scale (those of the industrial sector, the secondary sector and those of the service sector). In terms of space, a city is a nucleus with different interconnected areas (commercial, leisure, administrative areas ...).

Sociologically, specifically urban forms of life develop in cities, with great diversity social, with more anonymous personal relationships and more specialized jobs.

Rural zone

When humans began to selectively cultivate the Earth 10,000 years ago, hunting was abandoned as a way of life and a process of sedentary lifestyle in permanent towns or rural areas.

The rural space it does not present the same characteristics in all territories. However, there are certain common traits:

1) agricultural, livestock and forestry economic activities are carried out,

2) they are small population centers with generally limited public services,

3) in these territories its inhabitants live in dispersed nuclei and with a low population density Y

4) individuals maintain closer social ties than in urban areas (in the countryside all the inhabitants know each other, while in the city anonymity is maintained).

The world's population is mostly urban

Currently more than half of the planet's inhabitants live in cities. It is estimated that by 2050 two out of three people will live in a city. The gradual decline in rural population It is due to two main reasons:

1) life in the countryside is not economically viable for large sectors of the population and

2) the rural environment offers fewer services than the urban environment in some aspects, especially in educational, health or leisure-related matters.

Photos: Fotolia - petr84 / relif

Issues in Urban and Rural Areas