Consumer Services and Urbanization

Target 12.3 and 12.10

12.10

• Explain characteristics of urban populations in developed and developing countries

Terms/Concepts

• Rank-size rule / Primate city rule• Urbanization

Consumer Services

• Small cities provide services with small thresholds, ranges, and market areas.– Because too few people live in small

settlements to support many services.

• Larger cities provide consumer services having larger thresholds, ranges and market areas.

Consumer Services

• We spend as little time and effort as possible in obtaining consumer services and thus go to the nearest place that fulfills our needs.

Nesting of Settlements and Services

• According to the central place theory, market areas are arranged in a regular pattern.

• Larger market areas, based in larger settlements, are fewer in number and farther apart from each other then smaller settlements.

• Larger settlements also provide services with smaller market areas, thus both large and small markets are drawn around them.

Settlements in North Dakota

• Central place theory helps to explain the distribution of settlements of varying sizes in North Dakota.

• Larger settlements are fewer and farther apart, whereas smaller settlements are more frequent and closer together

Ranking Cities

• In developed countries, the size of settlements follows the rank-size rule.

Rank Size Rule

• Rank-size rule - A pattern of settlements in a country, such that the nth largest settlements is 1/n the population of the largest settlement– Ex. The 2nd largest city is one-half the

size of the 1st city, the 4th largest is one-fourth the size of the largest city

– The United States follows the rank-size distribution

• NY, LA, CHI, HOU, PHI

Primate City Rule

• Primate city rule- the largest settlements has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement– The largest city is called the primate city

• Countries that follow the primate rule tend to be subject to more inequality than rank-size rule countries

– Mexico follows the primate city distribution.

• Mexico City is five times larger than its second largest city (Ecatepec)

Mexico City

What is Urbanization?

• Urbanization – the process by which the population of urban settlements grow.– Two ways

• Increase in number of people living in cities• Increase in percentage of people living in

cities

Urbanization

• World’s largest cities = developing countries

• Higher percentage of people in cities = developed countries

Terms/Concepts

• Rank-size rule• Primate city rule• Primate city• Urbanization