Rapidity of Urbanization -- U.S (1800s) vs. China (2000s)

A Chicago Tribune report in Dec 2004 said "the past decade or so, more than 100 million peasants have left their villages for China's cities."

The 2000 census showed that around 1.265 billion people live on the Chinese mainland. Although most Chinese still live in rural areas, China's cities are growing rapidly as people move from rural areas to cities, seeking better economic opportunities. About 36 percent of China's population now lives in urban areas. About 64 percent live in rural areas.

About 420 million now live in urban areas.

That means that China went from about 25% to about 35% in ten years -- in actual numbers, about 100 million.

++++

The United States conducted its first census in 1790. At that time the country was overwhelmingly rural: a nation of farmers. Only 5% of the population could be classified as urban. The country's largest city at that time was New York City, and even it had fewer than 50,000 residents. The percentage of the country's population that could be classified as urban increased rather slowly until 1840, rising from 5% in 1790 to 11% in 1840. After that, the percentages rose rapidly, reflecting the spread of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of larger cities in the United States' manufacturing region.

(see chart above)

In 1920, for the first time, the census showed over half of the population to be urban. With a brief delay during the years of the Great Depression, the percentages continued their increase, reaching 74% in 1970. After that, growth slowed somewhat. The United States was up to 79% urban by 2000.


+++++