😔 Push from the countryside
Many villages have no secondary school, no clinic and no hospital. The nearest doctor may be a long walk away. Families worry that children will have no future there.
Where People Live » Why Cities in LICs Grow So Fast
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Cambridge spec: 7.1.2
- Why so many people move from the countryside to cities in LICs
- Push and pull factors sorted into social, economic, environmental and political groups
- How natural increase makes LIC cities grow even faster
- How to explain rapid urban growth in the exam
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Unlock This CourseTwo engines of city growth
Cities in low-income countries (LICs) are some of the fastest growing places on Earth. Every year, thousands of new people arrive and thousands of babies are born. Geographers say there are two engines behind this growth:
- Rural to urban migration - people moving into the city from the countryside.
- Natural increase - more births than deaths among the people already in the city.
Key terms:
- Rural to urban migration: the movement of people from the countryside to towns and cities.
- Rapid urban growth: a fast increase in the number of people living in a city.
We now use push and pull factors to explain why people leave the countryside in LICs. Examiners like answers that sort the factors into groups, so we will use the four syllabus groups: social, economic, environmental and political.
Social factors
🏥 Pull of the city
Cities have more schools, colleges, hospitals and clinics. Parents believe their children will get a better education and that the family will get better healthcare.
Economic factors
💰 Push from the countryside
Farm work is often hard, poorly paid and uncertain. Small farms may not make enough food or money for a whole family. Mechanisation (machines doing work that people used to do) means large farms need fewer workers, so labourers lose their jobs.
🏢 Pull of the city
Cities have factories, shops, offices and building sites, so there are more jobs. Wages are usually higher than in the countryside. Even when a job is not guaranteed, people hope to find one.
Environmental factors
🌵 Push from the countryside
Drought can cause crops to fail and animals to die. Desertification (good farmland turning into desert) leaves land that cannot grow food. Floods can wash away crops and homes. Other natural disasters, such as earthquakes and tropical storms, can destroy villages.
🏡 Pull of the city
Cities often have a more reliable water supply that does not depend on one season's rain. Aid and emergency help are often easier to reach there.
Political factors
🚧 Push from the countryside
Conflict (war and fighting between groups) forces people to flee for their safety. Rural areas are often the hardest to protect, and few officials work there.
🏛 Pull of the city
Governments usually spend more money on cities. They build roads, power, water supplies and public services there, so cities seem to offer a better future. The capital city may also feel safer.
Make it a chain
A good exam answer links the factor to the decision. Do not just write "drought". Write: "A drought makes crops fail (push), so families have no food or income and move to the city, where there are jobs (pull)."
Natural increase: the second engine
Migration is only half the story. Once migrants arrive, they add to the number of babies born in the city. There are three reasons natural increase is high in LIC cities:
- Young migrants. Most migrants are young adults who are ready to start families. So many babies are born in the city.
- High birth rates. In many LICs, families are large. Children may help with work, and parents may have many children because some might not survive.
- Falling death rates in cities. Cities have hospitals, vaccines, clean water and medicines. More babies survive and people live longer, so deaths fall while births stay high.
When births are much higher than deaths, the population rises quickly, even if nobody else moves in.
Putting it all together
| Group | Push (from rural areas) | Pull (to the city) |
|---|---|---|
| Social | Few schools and clinics | Better education and healthcare |
| Economic | Low pay, farm machines replace workers | More jobs, higher wages |
| Environmental | Drought, desertification, floods, disasters | More reliable water, easier to reach aid |
| Political | Conflict | Government investment in cities |
Cities in LICs therefore grow quickly because migration and natural increase work together, and each one makes the other stronger.
Worked example
A made-up city has 2 million people. In one year, 80,000 migrants arrive. There are 60,000 births and 20,000 deaths.
Natural increase = 60,000 - 20,000 = 40,000.
Total growth = 80,000 + 40,000 = 120,000.
Share from migration = 80,000 ÷ 120,000 × 100 = about 67%.
Common mistakes
1. Saying the city grows only because of migration. Natural increase matters too.
2. Putting a factor in the wrong column. Check each factor is a push from the countryside or a pull to the city.
3. Writing a list of factors with no link to the decision to move.
4. Forgetting that the pull of the city is sometimes only a belief. Some migrants find jobs and homes hard to get.
Exam-style question
Fig. 1.1 shows the causes of growth in Kelmar, a made-up city in an LIC, between 2010 and 2020.
| Cause of growth, 2010 to 2020 | People (millions) |
|---|---|
| Migrants arriving from rural areas | 1.3 |
| Natural increase | 0.9 |
| Total growth | 2.2 |
(a) Define the term rural to urban migration. [1 mark]
(b) Calculate the percentage of Kelmar's growth caused by migrants. Give your answer to the nearest whole number. [2 marks]
(c) Explain two push factors that make people leave the countryside. [4 marks]
(d) Explain why cities in LICs grow so fast. [6 marks]
Model answer
(a) The movement of people from the countryside to towns and cities. (1)
(b) 1.3 ÷ 2.2 × 100 (1) = 59% (1)
(c) Drought (1) makes crops fail so farmers have no food or income (1). Few schools or clinics in villages (1) so families move to give their children education and healthcare (1).
(d) Top-level answer: Cities grow fast for two reasons. First, there is migration. In the countryside there are push factors such as drought, which ruins crops, and poor wages. In the city there are pull factors such as more jobs, better schools and hospitals, and government investment in roads and services. Second, there is natural increase. Many migrants are young adults, so they have children in the city. Birth rates stay high, and death rates fall because cities have hospitals, vaccines and clean water. So births are much higher than deaths. Migration brings in people, and natural increase adds even more, so the population rises very quickly.
Exam tip
For a 6-mark "Explain" question, write about both migration and natural increase. Use at least one social, economic, environmental or political factor and link each to a result.