Key Stage 3 geography · Human geography

KS3 urbanisation and the growth of cities: a guide for parents

In Key Stage 3, pupils learn that more of the world’s people now live in towns and cities than in the countryside, and they study why that has happened and what it means. They look at the causes of urban growth, the opportunities and problems of rapid growth in cities in lower-income and newly industrialising countries, and how cities in the UK have changed. It matters because most of today’s pupils will live and work in cities.

Urbanisation and the growth of cities, explained

Urbanisation is an increase in the proportion of a country’s population living in towns and cities. The United Nations estimates that the world passed the point where more than half of all people lived in urban areas around 2007, and the share has continued to rise. The UK was one of the first countries to urbanise, from the late 1700s as the Industrial Revolution drew people into towns, and is now more than 80 per cent urban. Today the fastest urban growth is in Asia and Africa. A megacity is usually defined as a city of more than 10 million people, and there are now more than 30 of them, most in Asia.

Pupils study two main causes. The first is rural-to-urban migration, where people leave villages because of push factors such as small farms, lack of jobs, poor services or drought, and are drawn to the city by pull factors such as work, schools, hospitals and a hope of higher wages. The second is natural increase, because many migrants are young, and when they have children the city grows further. Pupils learn that urbanisation often goes alongside economic change as countries move from farming to manufacturing and services.

Cities bring opportunities. They can offer jobs, higher average incomes, better access to healthcare and education, and services that are cheaper to provide to many people living close together. They also bring challenges when growth is fast. Housing may not keep up, so migrants build informal settlements, sometimes called squatter settlements or shanty towns, which can lack safe water, sanitation and secure land rights. Other problems include traffic congestion, air pollution, waste and a widening gap between rich and poor. Many informal settlements also contain active communities and small businesses, and some governments improve them by adding services.

Urbanisation in higher-income countries looks different. Pupils learn about suburbanisation, as people move from city centres to the edges, and counter-urbanisation, where some move out into villages and rural areas. They also study regeneration, which means investing in old industrial or run-down areas, often using brownfield sites that have been built on before in place of greenfield land. Schools choose the UK city they study, for example London, Manchester, Bristol or a city near them. The idea of a sustainable city covers public transport, green space, energy-efficient buildings and managing waste.

The programme of study asks for detailed place-based examples but does not name any, so schools choose them. Many compare a city in a lower-income or newly industrialising country, for example Lagos, Mumbai or Rio de Janeiro, with a UK city. This helps pupils see that cities are shaped by a mix of human and physical processes over time, and that growth brings both gains and costs for different groups of people. Good answers use specific evidence and show more than one point of view.

Words your child will hear

Urbanisation: An increase in the share of a country’s people living in towns and cities.
Megacity: A city with more than 10 million inhabitants.
Push factor: Something that drives people away from a place, such as a lack of work.
Pull factor: Something that attracts people to a place, such as jobs and services.
Informal settlement: A neighbourhood built without official permission or planning, often without full services such as clean water and sanitation.
Brownfield site: Land that has been used before and can be redeveloped, such as a disused factory.
Sustainable city: A city planned to meet people’s needs today without harming the environment or future generations.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 3 says:

Pupils should be taught to understand, through the use of detailed place-based exemplars at a variety of scales, the key processes in physical and human geography
Human geography relating to: population and urbanisation; international development; economic activity in the primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary sectors; and the use of natural resources
Pupils should understand how geographical processes interact to create distinctive human and physical landscapes that change over time.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

A model answer: why do cities grow quickly in many lower-income countries?

Explain why the populations of cities in many lower-income countries are growing so quickly.

Name the main process. Rapid urban growth is caused by two things: migration from the countryside, and natural increase within the city itself.
Explain the push factors. In rural areas families may farm very small plots, droughts or floods can ruin crops, and there are few schools, clinics or paid jobs. These push people to leave.
Explain the pull factors. Cities offer work in factories, shops, construction and services, usually at higher wages. They also have more schools and hospitals, and migrants often follow relatives who have gone before.
Add natural increase. Many migrants are young adults, so they have children in the city, and better healthcare means more of those children survive. This adds further to growth.
Show a consequence with evidence. If housing and services are not built quickly enough, informal settlements grow. Give a figure from your case study, such as the share of the city’s people living in them, and then conclude.

Cities in many lower-income countries are growing quickly because people move in from the countryside, pushed by poverty, lack of services and poor farming conditions and pulled by jobs and schools, and because the young population living there has many children. The result can be rapid growth faster than housing and services can keep up with.

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking cities cover most of the world’s land

Maps of cities and satellite photos at night show big glowing areas.

What helps: Although more than half of people live in cities, towns and cities take up only a small share of the land. Most of the planet’s land is still farmland, forest, desert or ice.

Describing informal settlements only as places of misery

News coverage tends to focus on the poor conditions.

What helps: The living conditions are often hard, but people also run businesses, form strong communities and improve their homes over time. A balanced answer discusses both, and how improvement schemes work.

Assuming cities everywhere are growing at the same rate

Urbanisation is taught as a single global story.

What helps: Growth is fastest in parts of Asia and Africa. Some cities in richer countries have grown slowly, or even shrunk after industries closed. Compare two places using actual figures.

Believing everyone who moves to a city finds a better life

Pull factors are listed without the risks.

What helps: Many migrants find work, but some end up in insecure jobs or poor housing, so the move can be a gamble. Ask what the evidence says for the city being studied.

How to help at home

Compare old and new maps. Look at an older map of your town, borrowed from a library or a local history book, and compare it with a recent one. Where have buildings spread? Which land was once fields? Ask what drove the change.
Family migration stories. Ask relatives whether they or their parents moved from a village to a town, or from one country to another. What pushed them out and what pulled them in? Real stories help pupils write balanced answers.
Trace a journey through the city. On your next trip to a larger town, note how people travel, how busy the streets are and where the green spaces are. Ask your child to suggest one change that would make the place more sustainable.
Find brownfield land. Look for derelict buildings or an old factory site that has been redeveloped nearby. Discuss why building on brownfield land can be better than using fields, and also why it can be harder.
Use an atlas. Find the five largest cities in an atlas and plot them on a blank world map. Ask which continents they are in. Compare with a map from an older atlas if you can, to see which cities have moved up the list.

Builds on

Key Stage 2: Climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts
Key Stage 2: Rivers and the water cycle
Key Stage 2: Mountains
Key Stage 2: Volcanoes and earthquakes
Key Stage 2: Settlements and land use
Key Stage 2: Economic activity and trade
Key Stage 2: Natural resources