Relationship between rates and levels of urbanization. Level of urbanization of world regions. Comparative characteristics of the natural movement of the population of the Central and Central Black Earth Regions

Despite the presence of common features of urbanization as a worldwide process, different countries and regions it has its own characteristics, which, first of all, is reflected in different levels and rates of urbanization. Based on the level of urbanization, all countries of the world can be divided into C large groups. But major differences can be observed between more and less developed countries. In the early 90s, the average urbanization rate in developed countries was 72%, and in developing countries - 33%.

Conditional levels of urbanization:

Low level of urbanization - less than 20%;

The average level of urbanization is from 20% to 50%;

High level of urbanization - from 50% to 72%;

Very high level urbanization - more than 72%.

Weak urbanized countries- Western and East Africa, Madagascar and some Asian countries.

Moderately urbanized countries - Bolivia, Africa, Asia.

Highly urbanized countries - Europe, North America, South Africa, Australia, South America, CIS countries.

The pace of urbanization largely depends on its level. In most economically developed countries that have achieved a high level of urbanization, the share of urban population in lately is growing relatively slowly, and the number of residents in capitals and other largest cities, as a rule, is even decreasing. Many city residents now prefer to live outside the city centers major cities, and in the suburban area and rural areas. But urbanization continues to develop in depth, acquiring new forms. In developing countries, where the level of urbanization is much lower, it continues to grow in urban population is increasing rapidly. Now they account for more than 4/5 of the total annual increase in the number of urban residents, and the absolute number of city dwellers has already far exceeded their number in economically developed countries. This phenomenon, scientifically called the urban explosion, has become one of the most important factors in the entire socio-economic development of developing countries. However, urban population growth in these regions far outstrips their actual development. It occurs largely due to the constant “pushing” of the excess rural population into cities, especially large ones. At the same time, the poor population usually settles on the outskirts of large cities, where belts of poverty arise.

Complete, as they sometimes say, “slum urbanization” has assumed very large proportions. This is why a number of international documents speak of an urbanization crisis in developing countries. But it continues to remain largely spontaneous and disordered.

Economically developed countries are now characterized by urbanization “in depth”: intensive suburbanization, formation and spread of urban agglomerations and megacities.

In economically developed countries, on the contrary, great efforts are beginning to regulate and manage the urbanization process. In this work, which is often carried out by trial and error, along with government agencies Architects, demographers, geographers, economists, sociologists, and representatives of many other sciences participate.

Almost all the problems of world population are more closely intertwined than ever in the process of global urbanization. They appear in their most concentrated form in cities. Population and production are also concentrated there, very often to the extreme. Urbanization is a complex, diverse process that affects all aspects of world life. Let us note only some of the features of world urbanization on the threshold of the third millennium. Urbanization still continues at a rapid pace in various forms in countries at different levels of development. Under different conditions in each country, urbanization occurs both in breadth and depth, at varying speeds.

The annual growth rate of urban residents is almost twice as high as the global population growth rate as a whole. In 1950, 28% of the world's population lived in cities, in 1997 - 45%. Cities of different ranks, significance and size in which suburbs, agglomerations, and even larger urbanized zones are rapidly expanding, practically cover the bulk of humanity with their influence. The most important role is played by large cities, especially millionaire cities. The latter numbered 116 in 1950, and 230 in 1996. The urban lifestyle of the population, urban culture are increasingly spreading in rural areas in most countries of the world. In developing countries, urbanization is mainly expanding as a result of the massive influx of migrants from rural areas and small towns to large cities. According to the UN, in 1995 the share of the urban population in developing countries as a whole was 38%, including 22% in the least developed countries. For Africa this figure was 34%, for Asia - 35%. But in Latin America City dwellers now make up the majority of the population - 74%, including in Venezuela - 93%, in Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Colombia and Peru - from 70% to 80%, etc. Only in some least developed countries (Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras) and in the small island countries of the Caribbean, less than half are urban residents - from 35% to 47%.

A very large proportion of city dwellers is also typical for the most developed countries in the far west of Asia: Israel (91%), Lebanon (87%), Turkey (69%).

In industrialized countries, urbanization in breadth has long since exhausted itself. In the 21st century, most of them are almost entirely urbanized. In Europe, city dwellers make up an average of 74% of the population, including in Western - 81%, in some countries - even more: in Belgium - 97%, the Netherlands and Great Britain - 90%, in Germany - 87%, although in some countries city dwellers noticeably less: in Austria, for example, 56%, in Switzerland - 61%. High urbanization in Northern Europe: an average of 73%, as well as in Denmark and Norway - 70%. It is noticeably less in Southern and Eastern Europe, but, of course, with other indicators of urbanization, it is higher than in developing countries. In the USA and Canada, the share of the urban population reaches 80%.

The concentration of the transport industry has worsened economic conditions life in big cities. In many areas, the population is now growing faster in small towns on the outskirts than in metropolitan centers. Often the largest cities, especially millionaire cities, lose population due to its migration to the suburbs, satellite cities, and in some places to the countryside, where it brings an urban lifestyle. The urban population of industrialized countries is now practically stagnant.

And countries. Urbanization is the growth of cities, the increase specific gravity urban population in the country, region, world. Urbanization is accompanied by the concentration of socio-economic functions in cities, an increase in their role in the entire life of society, the spread of an urban lifestyle and the formation of networks and settlement systems.

Modern urbanization - how worldwide process- has three common features that are characteristic of most countries.

The first feature is the rapid growth rate of the urban population (Table 22).

Table 22

Dynamics urban population world in the XX - early XXI centuries.

From the table it follows that during the 20th century. The number of city dwellers in the world has increased 13 times! Only in 1950-1970. it increased by more than 80%, and in 1970-1990. - almost 70%. Nowadays, the urban population is growing approximately 3 times faster than the rural population due to massive Migrations into cities and the administrative transformation of rural settlements into urban ones. This trend should continue in the first quarter of the 21st century. According to forecasts, in 2025 the number of urban residents will exceed 5 billion people, and their share of the world population will rise to 61%. This means that the load on the environment natural environment will increase even more.

The second feature is the continuing concentration of the urban population, primarily in large cities. This is explained by the nature of production, the complexity of its connections with science, education, and the development of the non-production sphere. Big cities usually satisfy people’s spiritual needs more fully, provide better abundance and variety of goods and services, and access to information.

At the beginning of the 20th century. there were 360 ​​large cities in the world (with a population of over 100 thousand inhabitants), in which only 5% of the total urban population lived. At the end of the 1980s. there are already 2.5 thousand such cities, and their share in the world population has exceeded V3; To beginning of XXI V. the number of large cities reached 4 thousand. Among large cities, it is customary to especially highlight the largest millionaire cities with a population of over 1 million inhabitants. At the beginning of the 20th century. there were only 10 of them in the early 1980s. - more than 200, and by the beginning of the 21st century. became approximately 400. In Russia in 2009 there were 11 millionaire cities.

The third feature is the “sprawling” of cities, the expansion of their territory. For modern stage urbanization is especially characterized by the transition from a “spot” city to urban agglomerations - compact spatial groupings of urban settlements, united by diverse and intensive production, labor and cultural connections. The cores of such agglomerations are usually capitals, large industrial, port, administrative and other centers. Recently, to characterize the largest cities in the world, as a rule, data on the agglomerations formed by them are used, since this approach is more correct (Table 23).

Many of these agglomerations were transformed into even larger formations - megalopolises (clusters of agglomerations), urbanized areas.

Levels and rates of urbanization. With the world average level of urbanization currently at 50%, individual regions differ greatly in this indicator (Table 24).

The differences between individual countries are even greater.

Table 23

Agglomeration	Million inhabitants	Agglomeration	Million inhabitants
1. Tokyo	33,8	11. Osaka	16,7
2. Seoul	23,9	12. Kol kata	16,0
3. Mexico City	22,9	13. Karachi	15,7
4. Delhi	22,4	14. Guangzhou	15,3
5. Mumbai	22,3	15. Jakarta	15,1
6. New York	21,9	16. Cairo	14,8
7. Sao Paulo	21,0	17. Buenos Aires	13,8
8. Manila	19,2	18. Moscow	13,5
9. Los Angeles	18,0	19. Beijing	13,2
10. Shanghai	17,9	20. Dhaka	13,1

Table 24

Urbanization rate by region of the world in 2008

Highly urbanized those countries where the share of the urban population exceeds 50% can be considered. This group includes virtually everyone economically developed countries, as well as many from developing countries. Among them, the “champion” countries, where the level of urbanization exceeds 80%, stand out, for example, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Australia, Argentina, and the United Arab Emirates.

Mid-urbanized countries have an urban population share of 20 to 50%. This group includes most developing countries in Asia (China, India, Indonesia, etc.), Africa(Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, etc.) and some Latin American countries (Bolivia, Guatemala, etc.).

Slightly urbanized countries are those where the proportion of urban population is below 20%. It includes the most backward countries in the world, mainly in Africa. In some of them (Burundi), less than 10% of all residents live in cities.

The differences in urbanization levels between developed and developing countries are quite large: 75% and 42%, respectively. The situation is completely different with the pace of urbanization. In the economically developed countries of the world and in some developing countries in Latin America, where the level of urbanization is very high, the share of the urban population is either not growing at all or is growing slowly. In developing countries, on the contrary, in recent decades there has been a real “urban explosion”: both the number of cities and their population are growing rapidly. For example, in 1990, there were already 115 “millionaire” agglomerations in Asia, 40 in Latin America, and 24 in Africa. It also follows from Table 23 that developing countries have already become leaders in the number of super-large agglomerations. If in 1950, out of the 20 largest agglomerations in the world, only 7 were located in developing countries, then in 2005 - already 15 (including 6 of them were in the top ten).

As a result, the total number of urban residents in this group of countries increased from 304 million people in 1950 to 1.9 billion people in 2005, or 6.7 times, and in 2010 it will most likely exceed 2.5 billion people. Already in 1975, the number of city dwellers in developing countries exceeded their number in developed countries, and by 2005 this preponderance increased to 1 billion people.

However, it must be taken into account that the growth in the share of the urban population in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America is much faster than the actual development of these countries. It occurs largely due to the constant “pushing” of the surplus rural population into cities, especially large ones, where such migrants join the ranks of disadvantaged people living in poverty. Therefore, this type of urbanization is sometimes called “false urbanization.”

Questions and tasks to prepare for the exam

1. Explain the concept of “population explosion”. Where and why did it spread?
2. What is called reproduction (natural movement) of the population? Describe the first and second types of population reproduction and the features of their distribution.
3. What is included in the concept of “population quality”?
4. Name the largest nations of the world.
5. Give brief description world religions and name the number of their adherents.
6. Show on the map the most and least populated areas of the world and explain the reasons for their occurrence. Explain the contrasts in population density across major regions and countries.
7. Describe the geography of modern international population migrations.
8. What forms of urban and rural settlement?
9. Give examples of highly, medium and poorly urbanized countries and explain the patterns of their location.
10. Name the largest cities in the world.

Maksakovsky V.P., Petrova N.N., Physical and economic geography of the world. - M.: Iris-press, 2010. - 368 pp.: ill.

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Based on the level of urbanization, countries are divided into three groups. The first group is highly urbanized countries, where the share of the urban population is more than 50% (Russia, Canada, USA, etc.). The second group is medium-urbanized countries, where the share of the urban population is 25-50%. The third group is low-urbanized countries, where the share of the urban population is less than 25%.

There are the following legal systems: common law, civil law and theocratic law.

International law can be defined as a system of international treaty and customary rules created by states and other subjects of international law aimed at maintaining peace and strengthening international security; the establishment and development of comprehensive international cooperation, which is ensured by the conscientious fulfillment by subjects of international law of their international obligations, and, if necessary, by coercion carried out by states individually or collectively in accordance with the current rules of international law.

International economic law can be defined as a branch of public international law, which is a set of principles and norms governing economic relations between states and other subjects of international law.

In a narrow (formal) sense, sources of international law are usually divided into basic and auxiliary.

By auxiliary sources of international law we usually mean documents (resolutions, declarations, etc.) adopted by bodies of international organizations, judicial (arbitration) decisions, and the opinions of the most prominent experts in the field of international law (doctrine).

The basic principles of international law are enshrined in the UN Charter. The most authoritative documents revealing the content of the principles of modern international law are the Declaration of Principles of International Law relating to Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, adopted by the UN General Assembly on October 24, 1970, and the Declaration of Principles by which States Parties will to be guided in mutual relations, contained in the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe of August 1, 1975.

By type economic systems countries are divided into countries with centrally planned (Cuba, North Korea), market and transition economies (CIS countries and Eastern Europe). In developed countries, there is reasonable economic control and intervention in the economy by the state. To national and world economy large corporations and trade unions influence.

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A global phenomenon has overtaken humanity in the 21st century. Rapid changes have not only led to positive consequences. Urbanization, although perceived by many as something modern and necessary, still carries with it a lot of negative consequences. It is possible to answer the question of what urbanization is only if you understand all the positive and negative aspects, how it affects society, geography, ecology, politics and many other aspects of human life.

The definition of this word is simple at first glance. Urbanization, its definition, is the increase in urban-type settlements. However, the concept is much broader; it includes not only an increase total number citizens who live in cities.

This includes the spread of the urban lifestyle in villages, the penetration of mentality and aspects of social communication. The term is closely related to the social and territorial division of labor.

There is a definition in various sciences: sociology, geography, . The term implies the process of participation of large developing territorial points in the development of society. The definition also includes the aspect that population growth in cities determines changes in social, economic, and demographic nature. This process affects the lifestyle of not only those who moved, but also those who remained.

Urbanization of population

Urbanization in Wikipedia is defined as the process of increasing the role of cities and increasing their numbers. Wikipedia draws attention to the fact that urban culture begins to condition and displace rural culture, and a transformation of values ​​occurs through the prism of industrial development.

The phenomenon is accompanied by pendulum movement (temporary relocation to earn money, for everyday needs). It is noted that in 1800 only 3% of the world's population lived in cities, but now this figure is almost 50%.

You need to understand what motivates people who move to cities for permanent residence. They are driven primarily by the financial factor, because even in our country there are significant differences between how much residents of villages receive and residents of large cities. At the same time, the cost of food and goods from the main group does not differ much.

It is clear that residents of villages who have the opportunity to work outside their locality will flock to cities, where they have the opportunity to earn two or three times more money. A significant factor is the difficult economic situation. It encourages people to be unsure of the future.

The rapid flow, which is not accompanied by the provision of a sufficient number of jobs, leads to the fact that residents are forced to crowd into insufficient premises on the outskirts of cities. Such phenomena often occur in populated areas in Latin America and Africa, where today the greatest rate of population flow into cities is.

The process has positive and negative meanings. The main advantages are that the city is expanding, growing, that residents can gain new knowledge and earn more money, improve your education, achieve career heights. At the same time, employers are also happy, because more new hands are appearing, there is always a choice of candidates.

However, migrants who come in search of money accept any salary, which gives employers the opportunity to reduce minimum wages. The rapid flow also threatens to render the urban system unusable. Since it is not designed to serve such a number of people.

Negative factor large cluster residents - constant traffic jams, worsening condition environment, an increase in anti-Semitic and racist sentiments, an increase in the number of criminal acts.

Urbanization of population about countries

In geography

Urbanization is defined as the process of growth of the urban population in the world, the consolidation and increase of cities in their area, the emergence of new systems and networks of cities. Geography also notes the particular importance of the phenomenon in modern world. The geography atlas shows that in underdeveloped areas the growth rate is high, but this is not progress.

In the 90s, the fastest pace of rural residents moving to cities was observed, but now the phenomenon has slowed down a bit. The more developed and economically richer a place becomes, the less difference in the salaries of its residents. For those who live in villages, there is no point in moving to the metropolis, because the salaries are the same, and there are prospects for development in their native place.

Useful video: lecture for 10th grade on urbanization

Reasons

The reasons for urbanization are varied; they are not determined solely by economic circumstances.

There are the following main reasons:

• surplus of labor in rural areas;
• expansion in size as a result of the industrial revolution;
• industrial development in megacities;
• favorable cultural, living conditions cities.

The fact that there are certain sentiments associated with people from rural areas cannot be overlooked. As a result of the fact that it is impossible to organize a full-fledged education system or medical network in the regions, city residents are accustomed to thinking that rural people are somewhat “below” them. Urbanization and re-urbanization (the development of urban sentiments outside of megacities) makes it possible to eradicate this opinion.

Migration of population from rural areas

Levels

All countries of the world are divided into three groups depending on the pace of the process.

Urbanization levels are as follows:

• high (the share of the urban population is more than half);
• average (urban 20-30%);
• low (less than 20%).

Countries with a high level of urbanization include Japan, Sweden, England, Australia, and Venezuela. Countries with an average level: Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria, India. Rural population prevails in Mali, Zambia, Chad, Ethiopia.

Pay attention! Don't confuse level and tempo. The pace does not mean the current state of the country, but the rate at which the urban population is growing.

Economically developed countries with high rates of urban residents now report a small percentage of those who want to live in cities. Most residents gradually move to the outskirts, to villages where they can enjoy clean air and run your own farm. The number of urban residents is increasing in developing countries.

This is explained by the fact that social and economic development is directly related to the development of the person himself. People, wanting to get the most, flock to cities. There is also a so-called “slum” life.

The phenomenon occurs when rural residents, moving to a large city, discover that they have no housing and that not every employer is ready to hire them and pay them a lot of money. Not wanting to give up their dream, they settle on the outskirts of the city, where housing is inexpensive. Thus growth occurs, but this does not indicate progress.

Countries with high levels

These are those where the urban population exceeds 50%.

These include:

• South Korea;
• Canada;
• Monaco;
• St. Maarten;
• Singapore;
• Bermuda;
• Japan;
• United Kingdom;
• Australia;
• Venezuela;
• Sweden;
• Kuwait and others.

Pay attention! According to UN data on at the moment The pace of urbanization has slowed down a bit. The organization has been publishing research data for the past two years.

Countries with high levels of urban migration are predominantly located in Latin America, South and East Asia, Central Africa.

South Korea

World level

Main aspect modern process- This is not only rapid population growth. The concept of suburbanization appeared, meaning the creation of spatial forms on the basis of cities - megacities. There is a deconcentration of the population here. The term implies not only expansion in breadth, that is, the settlement becomes geographically larger, but also upward. The construction of tall skyscrapers, small apartments allows you to place on one square meter more people.

The global trend is also accompanied by a demographic boom. By increasing their economic profile, citizens of a certain country understand that by moving they can give more to their children. As a result of this, a problem arises: many children are born in cities, and extinction occurs in villages. However, in the world recent years There has been a decline in the rate of both urbanization and the birth rate.

Pay attention! As for Russia, there is another trend taking place - the transformation of villages into urban settlements.

Ratio of urban and rural population

Urbanization in Russia

In Russia, this phenomenon is widespread and is associated, first of all, with the economic situation in the country. In the capital of the Russian Federation, a person can earn 2-5 times more than in a village, doing the same work. The percentage of urbanization is now quite high - it is 73%.

This was influenced by the following negative factors:

• the lack of regulations in legislative acts that would adequately regulate migration issues within the country;
• difficulties in the economic situation of the country;
• large delays in wages;
• small selection of vacancies in rural areas;
• instability in the political sphere;
• low wages.

Useful video: Russian cities - urbanization

Conclusion

The pace of the process is increasing every year. Government services deal with migration issues within the country, but, as practice shows, this is not always effective.

The process of moving citizens of countries has both its pros and cons. It is not possible to say unambiguously what it will be like in the future, or whether it can stop altogether.

Urbanization in Russia can be considered in the narrow sense of the word as the growth of cities and their populations. In a broader sense, this process involves increasing the importance of the urban lifestyle in the development of modern society.

Process Features

A similar process is observed at different historical stages of the formation of human society, but only in the nineteenth century there was a significant accumulation of people in cities. In the 20th century, urbanization of Russian cities intensified. The peak of this process occurs in the post-war period.

Modern urbanization in Russia is the process of uniting large cities into agglomerations.

The meaning of the process

In a substantive sense, urbanization is a holistic process that involves changes social functions and cultural content of the urban population, needs, capital, tools of production. The ecological approach to urbanization, which is the most developed in the country, involves the use of principles and methods of territory development, taking into account the specifics of the natural environment.

Urbanization in Russia has the following features:

• intensification, concentration, versatility of urban activities in agglomerations and cities;
• the urban lifestyle is spreading not only in major centers, but also beyond them;
• formation of large-scale urban agglomerations;
• gradual transition from single centers to strip, nodal, linear agglomerations;
• an increase in the radius of settlement outside urbanized areas that are associated with recreation areas and industrial areas.

Urbanization of the population of Russia leads to inevitable deformation of the structure of suburban areas, reduction of parameters Among characteristic features processes, we note suburbanization, which involves the rapid development of territories near large cities. Also, nowadays we are witnessing ruralization, which is associated with the introduction of norms and conditions of urban life in the countryside.

The first stage of urbanization in our country

The level of urbanization in Russia has changed significantly since the beginning of the last century. In the 20-50s of the 20th century, the country was an underdeveloped power. She was significantly inferior European states by level of urbanization.

At that time the percentage of the urban population was only 15 percent. But even then, St. Petersburg was also singled out in Russia. Among the major settlements, whose residents led an urban lifestyle, also noted Tula, Astrakhan, and Rostov-on-Don.

At that time, urbanization in Russia was poorly developed, small cities were only formally considered centers, in reality there was practically no large-scale industry in them.

The growth of the share of city dwellers in the country was quite slow, and by 1914 the percentage of urbanization in Russia reached no more than 17 percent.

In subsequent decades, the situation changed radically, as a result the share of the urban population increased tenfold, and city dwellers began to make up more than half of the total population.

The process of urbanization in Russia proceeded at a particularly rapid pace in the thirties of the twentieth century. The annual growth of the urban population at that time was about ten percent. The country was undergoing industrialization at an accelerated pace, which attracted the population to the cities. Due to forced collectivization, people were forced to leave their villages and villages and move to cities.

It was the village people who acted as the main source of increase in the urban population. In the second half of the twentieth century, the annual increase in urban settlements amounted to a million people, which became a record figure for Russia.

Second stage

It occurred in the second part of the last century. This time can be characterized by rapid industrial development in post-war period. In addition to the rapid increase in the number of urban residents, their way of life began to be broadcast and spread in rural areas. Features of urbanization in Russia at this time are the increase in the number of cities from 877 to 1037. In the USSR, by 1981, cities made up half of all Soviet settlements.

At this time, the importance of intensive urbanization factors is growing due to the internal differentiation of this process. If initially the sphere of urbanization was concentrated in selected cities, That new level urbanization of Russia led to its spread throughout the country. This process is the most important social and economic feature of the state, characterized by overcoming the differences between the village and the city.

Instead of compact cities, urbanized areas began to appear, in which industrial production and population, the distribution of residents is carried out according to the principle from the center to the outskirts.

Third stage

How did urbanization continue in Russia? The development of the process at this stage was characterized by a trend towards a decrease in the number of urban residents; it was called the “Russian cross”. Unfortunately, the downward trend quantitative composition urban settlements are still observed today.

The reason for the significant decrease in the size and share of the urban population in the late nineties of the last century was the economic crisis. It was he who contributed to the natural decline of Russians. For several years there has been a migration outflow of residents from cities to

A similar “crisis” decrease in the number of city residents is currently observed in the north of the Russian Federation; people are trying to move to the central regions of the country, or go to St. Petersburg and Moscow.

Moscow and Leningrad region are the most numerous Russian agglomerations. A low percentage of the urban population exists in the North Caucasus region. Two significant explanations can be found for this phenomenon. This area has favorable climatic and natural conditions for the existence of agriculture, therefore the region is marked high density villagers. Here are the national republics, which do not welcome urbanization.

Special territories

Among the regions Russian Federation with the maximum concentration of citizens are the Murmansk region, as well as the Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous region.

Urbanization of the Primorsky Territory of Russia is happening quite slowly in comparison with the development of the central Russian regions. In addition, the proportion of rural residents here is also low, since the region does not have favorable conditions for the development of territories.

At the very end of the twentieth century, signs of suburbanization began to appear. The minimum concentration of urban residents (less than half) is typical for national autonomies, which always lag behind urbanization processes. In addition to most of the North Caucasian republics, these include Altai, Kalmykia, Koryak, Evenki, and Buryat autonomous okrugs.

The share of the urban population in the Krasnodar Territory is also small, since there are ideal conditions for growing various agricultural crops.

Categories of city locations

In Russia, cities are distinguished and they can be resorts, dachas, or workers, depending on the conditions of their creation. There are certain criteria according to which rural settlements are distinguished from urban settlements.

During the administrative changes that occurred in the nineties of the twentieth century, such a new entity as the Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug appeared in our country. It is interesting because it does not have a single urban settlement.

Criteria for selection

The number of residents who are involved in agriculture(the figure should not exceed 15 percent of the total population). There are certain requirements for cities and the number of residents. In order for a settlement to receive city status, at least 12 thousand people must be registered in it.

Some cities, in which the number of inhabitants has significantly decreased, retained their original status for a long time. Only at the beginning of the twenty-first century did the process of their transformation into urban-type settlements or rural settlements begin.

New trends

In the second half of the last century, urban settlements arose in two cases in the country:

• as a result of the development of new natural resources Mirny, Nizhnevartovsk, Bratsk, Novy Urengoy appeared;
• during the expansion and transformation of regional centers and urban settlements.

Urbanization processes moved both in depth and breadth. This process was especially pronounced in Rostov, Tyumen, Orenburg regions, Karelia, Altai Territory. Basically, similar processes were observed in national autonomies and agricultural southern regions.

Since these areas previously had a reduced proportion of urban population, increasing regional differentiation was reflected in the level of urbanization at the end of the twentieth century. Among the reasons that caused significant changes in urbanization trends, we highlight:

• unjustified transfer of large agricultural settlements to urban settlements;
• artificial preservation in the status of “city” of those settlements in which the number of inhabitants has significantly decreased.

During the socio-economic crisis that our country faced, people looked for any way to survive. The villagers endured all the difficulties much easier, since they had the opportunity to run their own subsidiary farming.

Conclusion

In Russia, the urbanization process has its own distinctive characteristics. Recently, a rather difficult economic situation has developed in the country, which has negatively affected this process. It turned out that it is much easier to withstand all the hardships and hardships associated with increasing tariffs for electrical energy, water, utilities, to rural residents than to city residents. That is why the population in small Russian cities is gradually decreasing, they are turning into urban-type settlements.

Such phenomena are absolutely not typical for European settlements, so they can rightfully be considered distinctive characteristics of our country.

Recently, there have been some positive changes associated with an increase in the birth rate in the country. This leads to a slight increase in the number of city residents even in those regions where the economic situation is difficult.

Those social support measures that are provided to young mothers stimulate their desire to have a second or third child. Of course, we cannot yet say that urbanization is proceeding at a rapid pace, but that characteristic of the end of the twentieth century has practically passed.

Recently, new cities are no longer appearing, while existing settlements are being consolidated.