1. World cities

2. Objectives:
To identify and locate the world’s largest
cities.
To understand the reasons why some cities
have grown so rapidly.
To look at the concept of a ‘world city’

3. Match up the correct definitions:
Millionaire city
Mega city
World city
Metropolitan area with a total
population in excess of 10 million. The
density is normally over 2 000
persons/km². It can be made up of
two or more metropolitan areas that
converge upon one another.
A city that acts as a major centre for
finance, trade, business, politics,
culture, science, publishing and all
associated activities – serving not just a
country or region.
A city with over a million inhabitants.

4. The world’s largest cities (2008)
Tokyo-Yokohama
New York
London
Seoul-Incheon
Jakarta
Moscow
Mumbai
Sao Paulo
Paris
Beijing
Mexico City
Delhi
Chicago
Shanghai
Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto
Manila
Madrid
Dhaka
Buenos Aires
Nairobi
Which do you think are the 10 most populated cities? Can you put the 10 in rank order?

5. The world’s largest cities (2008)
Tokyo-Yokohama 34.4 (million)
New York
Seoul-Incheon 20.1
Jakarta
Mumbai
Sao Paulo
Mexico City 18.4
Delhi
Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto 17.2
Manila

6. Distribution of the world’s largest cities
Onto your world map, label the 10 largest
cities.

7. The world’s largest cities (2008)
Tokyo-Yokohama 34.4 (million)
New York
Seoul-Incheon 20.1
Jakarta
Mumbai
Sao Paulo
Mexico City 18.4
Delhi
Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto 17.2
Manila
Japan
USA
South Korea
Indonesia
India
Brazil
Mexico
Philippines
What is the ratio of MEDC/LEDC?

8. Describe the distribution of the 10 largest
cities using your world map.

9. How has this changed since the 1960’s?

10. Until the middle of the 20th Century the biggest cities were in the most developed countries. New York and London were the world’s biggest cities.
However since 1950 many cities in developing countries have joined them due to high natural increase and rural-urban migration.

11. What does the map show?

12. Oman
Niger
Ethiopia

13. Sweden
Libya
Saudi Arabia

14. The most urbanised continents are Europe, North America, South America and Oceania.
Urbanisation is increasing most rapidly in Africa and Asia.

15. The causes of urban growth
Natural population growth
There tends to be more young people in cities as it is the young that are most likely to migrate from rural areas. They then have children meaning the rates of natural increase are higher in cities.
2. Rural-urban migration
This is divided into push and pull factors.

16. PUSH
From rural

17. Wars and civil strike cause people to flee
Natural disasters – floods, tropical storms, earthquakes..
Population growth – not enough land to support the people. Leads to over-farming and low yields
PUSH
From rural
Cash crops – land traditionally used to grow food for locals now used to produce crops for money.
Agricultural problems – due to desertification, subdivision of land into smaller plots and debt on loans taken out to help pay for agricultural change.
Health - Local diseases and inadequate medical provision.

18. PULL to urban

19. A perceived better quality of life
Employment- in factories and service industries such as hotels – better paid than rural area jobs.
PULL to urban
Better quality social provisions – education, healthcare, entertainment….
Informal employment – selling on the street, providing transport eg. rickshaw, prostitution.

20. World cities
There has been an economic shift from in advanced economies from goods production to information handling.
Globalisation has led to manufacturing shifting from traditional centres such as Manchester to lower wage economies eg. China

21. World cities:
World cities are identified as places of innovation and entrepreneurialism.
Are part of a network of learning consisting of clusters of universities, company research bases and so on. They may be seen as ‘science cities’ or ‘creative hubs’.
Tend to have shed a lot of their routine activities to other countries.
Offer a wide range of jobs – but mainly at either the top end or low end – this leads to increased differentiation in types of residential areas within these cities.

22. Europe
In Western Europe, London is the only indisputable world city. Paris perhaps also qualifies.
Below them are national capital cities and a number of specialised cities eg. Milan, Stuttgart, Manchester. These are called sub-world cities.
Within Europe high-speed train and air travel has developed to allow convenient face-to-face contact.
These important centres have shown dynamism in adapting to the loss of traditional manufacturing and goods-handling.