Definitions 1
The growth and expansion of urban areas through the movement of people to towns and cities.
Urbanisation
A built-up area such as a town or city.
Urban Area
An area of countryside.
Rural Area
A city that has a population of at least 10 million people.
Megacity
The sending of goods or services to another country for sale.
Export
The movement of people from one defined area to another within the same country.
Internal Migration
The number of people per km2.
Population Density
Someone who has fled their home country and has a form of resident status in a new country.
Refugee
A place, once uninhabited, where people establish a community.
Settlement
Someone who has been forced to leave their home country but has no resident status in any other country.
Asylum Seeker
The number of babies born per 1000 people in a defined area per year.
Birth rate
The name given to all sources of burnable fuel formed from decayed plants and animals. Typical forms are oil, coal and natural gas.
Fossil Fuels
A town built by a major employer to support its working community.
Company town
Small number of people per square kilometre.
Low-density Population
The movement of people who have no plans of returning to their home country.
Permanent Migration
Population increase resulting from the number of births exceeding the number of deaths.
Natural Increase
Behaviour which generally violates norms and customary social behavior. An example is tagging a building wall with graffiti.
Anti-Social Behaviour
The forced movement of people due to civil unrest, natural disaster, or persecution on the grounds of race, gender, religion or sexuality.
Forced Migration
The movement of people to be reunited with family members.
Family Reunion Migration
The pattern of where people live.
Population Distribution
All of the unregulated forms of income-producing activities.
Informal sector
Suburbs on the outskirts of cities.
Fringe Suburbs
The growth and expansion of human population away from a central urban area.
Urban Sprawl
The phenomenon characterised by the heat from the sun being radiated off dark artificial surfaces in an urban area into the environment. This causes a rise in temperature.
Urban Heat Island
A city that is an "arrival point" for migrants; often large enough to provide work for large numbers of skilled and unskilled migrants.
Gateway City