SpielByWeb

Daviviames · Joined: 27 Dec 19 Posts: 14

Do you live in a city or a town? Depending on where you live, the definition of these two terms may vary, as will the official designation that is given to a certain community.
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James R. Davis

Daviviames · Joined: 27 Dec 19 Posts: 14

In general, though, cities are larger than towns. Whether any given town is officially designated with the term "town," however, will vary based on the country and state it is located in.
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James R. Davis

Daviviames · Joined: 27 Dec 19 Posts: 14

In the United States, an incorporated city is a legally defined government entity. It has powers delegated by the state and county and the local laws, regulations, and policies are created and approved by the voters of the city and their representatives.
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James R. Davis

Daviviames · Joined: 27 Dec 19 Posts: 14

In many places in the U.S., a town, village, community, or neighborhood is simply an unincorporated community with no governmental powers.
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James R. Davis

Daviviames · Joined: 27 Dec 19 Posts: 14

It is difficult to compare countries based on the percentage of urban population. Many countries have different definitions of the population size necessary to make a community "urban."
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James R. Davis

Daviviames · Joined: 27 Dec 19 Posts: 14

For example, in Sweden and Denmark, a village of 200 residents is considered to be an "urban" population, but it takes 30,000 residents to make a city in Japan. Most other countries fall somewhere in between.
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James R. Davis

Daviviames · Joined: 27 Dec 19 Posts: 14

Due to these differences, we have a problem with comparisons. Let us assume that in Japan and in Denmark there are 100 villages of 250 people each. In Denmark, all of these 25,000 people are counted as "urban" residents but in Japan, the residents of these 100 villages are all "rural" populations. Similarly, a single city with a population of 25,000 would be an urban area in Denmark but not in Japan.
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James R. Davis

Daviviames · Joined: 27 Dec 19 Posts: 14

Japan is 78 percent and Denmark is 85 percent urbanized. Unless we are aware of what size of a population makes an area urban we cannot simply compare the two percentages and say "Denmark is more urbanized than Japan."
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James R. Davis

Daviviames · Joined: 27 Dec 19 Posts: 14

The following table includes the minimum population that is considered "urban" in a sampling of countries throughout the world. It also lists the percent of the country's residents which are "urbanized." Not surprisingly, some countries with a higher minimum population have a lower percentage of urbanized population.
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James R. Davis

Daviviames · Joined: 27 Dec 19 Posts: 14

In addition, the urban population in almost every country is rising, some more significantly than others. This is a modern trend that has been noted over the last few decades and is most often attributed to people moving to cities to pursue work.
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James R. Davis