Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

World Population Becomes More Urban Than Rural

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the country-sprawls dept.

biohack writes "A major demographic shift took place on Wednesday, May 23, 2007: For the first time in human history, the earth's population is more urban than rural. According to scientists from North Carolina State University and the University of Georgia, on that day, a predicted global urban population of 3,303,992,253 exceeded that of 3,303,866,404 rural people. In the US, the tipping point from a majority rural to a majority urban population came early in the late 1910s."

2 of 308 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Stats all the way to the single digits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    How do they calculate that? I mean, they cannot have that high of a confidence level in those numbers.

    Does it matter? The population density between rural and urban is arbitrary. You could arbitrarily define any number for rural or urban. From one definition on the USDA website:

    The basic concept remains intact, namely that rural includes open country and small settlements of less than 2,500 persons. However, there are many small towns and cities that have adjoining towns or suburbs, both incorporated and unincorporated aggregations. The Bureau has defined such urban clusters regardless of political boundaries. For example, a small town of 2,000 people with an adjacent densely settled suburb of 800 people would be designated as an urban cluster with a population of 2,800. Under 1990 procedures there would be no combination and the population would remain rural.

    Conversely, the Bureau identified rural parts of incorporated towns whose city limits are very broad and include some thinly settled territory. Thus, if a town of 5,000 people has 500 residents living in thinly settled portions, the 500 are classified as rural and the urban population would be just 4,500. Does 2,500 people in a town mean anything special? How would the numbers change for the US is we went to 2,600? I came from a town of 30,000 and I thought that was Hicksville. The standards for this study are probably different that that of the USDA, but it doesn't matter. It will be arbitrary as well. You can pick your timeline for when the world became more urban than rural as you pick your definitions for rural and urban. And if you can get past that hurdle, then you can try to figure out your uncertainties in your numbers.
  2. vast cities by bit+trollent · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I often marvel at the civilization we live in.

    Millions of people drive to work at 65 miles per hour on giant freeways only one wrong move away from dieing an unexpected death. These freeways are spectacular monuments to our society. They are closest most of us will ever get to flying under our own control and they are what make a giant city possible. Crossing a large city takes over an hour at freeway speeds. The scenery of giant buildings and thousand of other buildings and residences rushing by seemingly endlessly is beautiful in a way.

    I'm glad the world's population is more urban than rural. cities rock.