Urban main rapid urbanization id
The global trend of urban population has been rising rapidly for the last five decades.
Estimates indicate that in the mid-1990s, 43 percent of the world’s population lived in urban
areas. This figure is projected to become three-fifth of the world’s population by 2025 (United
Nations, 1993). In 1990, the world’s urban population was 2.4 billion, two thirds of who lived in
the developing countries. By the year 2025, a United Nations study estimates that these figures
will more than double, to 5.5 billion.
Throughout Africa, urbanization is increasing. Urban areas have expanded enormously in
population and size and there is growing concentration of population in a few large cities
especially in the national capitals. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the least urbanized but most
rapidly urbanizing part of the world, the United Nations projects that nearly one-half (49%) of
the population will be urban by 2025 (UN, b1996).
Ghana is no different from the ongoing trend. Consistent with observed trends in the rest
of Africa, Ghana’s population is becoming increasingly urbanized. The census or statistical
definition of an urban center in Ghana is any settlement with a population of 5,000 or more
persons. Today more than four out of every ten Ghanaians live in a city or town of more than
5,000 people.`` If current trends continue, by the year 2020 more than half of all Ghanaians will
live in urban areas” (Nabila, 1988, p. 1).
It must be acknowledged that urbanization is not isolated in one sense. It has a holistic
definition and varies from nation to nation. For instance in Sweden a settlement with more than
200 inhabitants is classified as urban, whilst in Switzerland the number is 10,000 and in Ghana, a
population of 5000 is considered as urban. Places can be viewed as urban if less than half of its
workers are engaged in agriculture. For example in India a settlement which has more than 75
percent of adults engaged in non-agricultural activities are classified as urban. Urbanization
according to Davis 1965 is “the total proportion of the total population concentrated in an
urban settlement or else to a rise in this proportion”. It therefore refers to the changes in the
proportion of a population of a nation living in urban areas, thus the process of people moving to
cities or other densely populated settlements. Urbanization simply put is the process by which
rural areas transform into urban settlements. Demographically, it involves to elements;
multiplication of points of concentration and increase in size of individual concentration.
Urbanization according to Lewis Writh, 1938 is a relatively large dense and permanent
settlement of socially heterogeneous individuals.
It must be noted that people migrate for several reasons and no single factor acts
independently to influence prospective migrants’ final decision to move. For this reason, a
unified theory to explain rural-urban migration is unrealistic (Hance, 1970, Kasanga and Avis,
1988). However, at any point in time, in a given location where there is voluntary movement, a
particular factor will be more prominent than others. For instance In Ghana, immigration to cities
is the largest source of urban growth and this is caused by push factors (e.g., natural disasters,
and religious persecution) that force people out of the rural areas and by pull factors (e.g.,
economic prosperity, urban lifestyle) that draw them into the cities and urban areas.
1
The main (underlying) causes of urbanization in Ghana include rural-urban migration,
high natural rate of increase and urban bias development strategies. (K. Nsiah, 2003)
Several factors accounts for urbanization, among which some are discussed below;
Economic factor; generally, the commonest activity in rural areas is predominantly
agriculture and it is rain-fed. These therefore compel the rural folk to move to the urban areas
during the dry season to pursue a livelihood which constitute urbanization.
Coupled with the above is the monetization of the urban economy. Abotchie 2001 has observed
that, the monetization of the urban economy has largely accounted for the exodus; from rural
to urban. Rural Ghana is characteristic of low money exchange for labor as well as other
activities. Labor is usually exchanged on casual grounds conforming to tradition and values. The
city on the other hand is known for its paid labor. As a result, there is a pull on the rural folk to
move to the city where his labor will be rewarded with physical money, thus an increase in size
of individual concentration.
Medical factor; Medical personnel are limited to rural areas in terms of adequacy. The
presence of Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHIPS) has helped to improve the
health of the rural population. With this improvement in health facility, less people are dying and
fertility is increasing. As a result of this increasing rural population, people move to the urban
areas.
Cultural factor; Culture engineer urbanization on two diverging lenses; push and pull
factors. First, people are pushed out of rural area to urban areas as a result of unfavorable cultural
conditions such as female genital mutilation (FGM), Trokosi system and early marriage. On the
other hand the urban areas are dominated by western cultures that pull people to urban areas. For
instance, urban dressing style serves as a pull factor on rural folks, causing them to move to
urban areas.
Natural allocation of resources; nature on itself increases the incidence of urbanization in
the sense that, major cities that pull rural folks into cities seem to follow similar trend which is
the endowment of peculiar natural resources. These resources generate multiple positive effects
to its areas. For instance, Accra has a sea and Kumasi has gold as a result majority of people are
pulled towards such areas in a concentric sense, thereby increasing the size of individual
concentration, thus urbanization.
High birth and low mortality rates: Ghana has high fertility and natural rates of
increase in population. Data from censuses and surveys suggest levels of total fertility at 4.4 per
woman in Ghana. GDHS, 2003. According to the Ghana population stabilization report 2003,
“Infant mortality declined from 77 per 1000 live births in 1988 to 66 in 1993 and 57 in 1998 but
rose to 64 in 2003. Currently, infant mortality in Ghana is 50 deaths per 1,000 live births and
2
under-five mortality is 80 deaths. Under-five mortality has shown a similar trend, declining from
155 in 1988 to 111 in 1993, 108 in 1993… even though the country has experienced declines in
infant and child mortality, the current mortality rates are still considered high”. This factor
corresponds to the multiplication of points of concentration in urban areas. According to
Davis 1965, this leads to a rise in the proportion of people concentrated in urban areas, because
people are not dying. Natural increase is fuelled by improved food supplies, better sanitation, and
advances in medical care that reduce the death rates and cause populations to grow both within
cities and the peri-urban areas.
Urban bias development strategies: Pro-urban development strategies adopted by
countries have left urban areas more developed than the rural areas.
Some of such development defects are discussed below:
Concentration of industries; In Ghana, Accra central, Tema, and Kumasi (Asokwa) are
known to be the major industrial areas on the land. The concentration of industries in the major
cities correspond to the concentric ecological model of urbanization, thus establishing such cities
as the hub (central business districts, CBD) of the nation, thereby causing the intensification of
population in such localities.
Infrastructures and superstructures; in developing countries such as Ghana, most
infrastructures, with regard to entertainment, recreation, health and education are mostly
concentrated in the cities. It seems like, anytime somebody needs something, the better version
of that thing is located in the city. In Ghana, sport stadia, entertainment theaters, ports,
recreational parks, etc., are all in the hub of the major cities. This therefore causes urbanization.
The implications of urbanization are numerous. First some positive effects of
urbanization include;
Urbanization leads to economies of scale and cheap labor. Industries benefit from
concentration of suppliers and consumers and allow savings in communications and transport
costs. Cities serve as commercial, administrative, and growth centers and are generally places for
production and consumption of goods and services. It also encourages competition and its reflex
of better services.
Despite the positive aspect of urbanization there are other negative factors associated
with urbanization; as urban areas grow, demand for land for housing, agriculture and urban
infrastructure increases leading to increased pressure on farmlands, forests and water resources.
Rapid urbanization accelerates desertification and environmental change, leading to water
scarcity, soil erosion, and climate change (causing dislodge of nature). It also encourages social
vices such as; armed robbery, rape, etc.
Rural areas on the other hand enjoy urbanization benefits such as; favorable population
density, devoid of social vices. However, on the other hand, it steals labor force from the rural
3
area, thus retarding development in the rural areas. Urbanization also breaks down the extended
family system. It also weakens traditional political system.
A plan to reduce environmental damage caused by rapid urbanization is to plan urban
areas in such a way that they can provide a real sense of community, with good sanitation,
adequate housing, health care and education facilities. The focus of today’s cities must be
towards better urban development. Government policies to urban unemployment and
environmental problems must be based on knowledge of who comes to the city and how they
cause and contribute to the problems in the city. Recycling of domestic and industrial wastes
should be promoted to improve degraded soils and urban agriculture. The need to ensure
effective urban infrastructure planning and enforcing planning laws and regulations is vital.
Developing the rural areas to curb rural-urban migration is crucial to stabilizing rural
urban migration. Intensifying family planning and population control programs in order to
reduce the multiplication of points of concentration in both urban and rural areas is necessary.
Encouraging industries to locate in the rural areas is vital and can be achieved by the integral
involvement of the government.
Although Ghana has become synonymous with rapid urbanization, it is neither a crisis
nor a tragedy. Urbanization has created a host of new opportunities with new and ill-understood
environmental, food and human security problems.
Although urbanization is associated with unemployment and other social problems, however, it
creates the avenue for growth and development of markets for consumer goods and a source of
human capital. The focus on cities must move decidedly towards better planning and
management with past failures giving way to more appropriate policies and practices. Proper
land use planning and urban environmental monitoring are required to solve the problems of
urbanization in Ghana
Reference
4
Abotchie 2001
Davis 1965
Ghana Population Stabilization Report, 2003
Hance, 1970, Kasanga and Avis, 1988
Lewis Writh, 1938
Nabila, 1988, p. 1
United Nations, 1993
Urbanization, Environmental Degradation and Food Security in K. Nsiah, 2003
UN, b,1996
5
Estimates indicate that in the mid-1990s, 43 percent of the world’s population lived in urban
areas. This figure is projected to become three-fifth of the world’s population by 2025 (United
Nations, 1993). In 1990, the world’s urban population was 2.4 billion, two thirds of who lived in
the developing countries. By the year 2025, a United Nations study estimates that these figures
will more than double, to 5.5 billion.
Throughout Africa, urbanization is increasing. Urban areas have expanded enormously in
population and size and there is growing concentration of population in a few large cities
especially in the national capitals. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the least urbanized but most
rapidly urbanizing part of the world, the United Nations projects that nearly one-half (49%) of
the population will be urban by 2025 (UN, b1996).
Ghana is no different from the ongoing trend. Consistent with observed trends in the rest
of Africa, Ghana’s population is becoming increasingly urbanized. The census or statistical
definition of an urban center in Ghana is any settlement with a population of 5,000 or more
persons. Today more than four out of every ten Ghanaians live in a city or town of more than
5,000 people.`` If current trends continue, by the year 2020 more than half of all Ghanaians will
live in urban areas” (Nabila, 1988, p. 1).
It must be acknowledged that urbanization is not isolated in one sense. It has a holistic
definition and varies from nation to nation. For instance in Sweden a settlement with more than
200 inhabitants is classified as urban, whilst in Switzerland the number is 10,000 and in Ghana, a
population of 5000 is considered as urban. Places can be viewed as urban if less than half of its
workers are engaged in agriculture. For example in India a settlement which has more than 75
percent of adults engaged in non-agricultural activities are classified as urban. Urbanization
according to Davis 1965 is “the total proportion of the total population concentrated in an
urban settlement or else to a rise in this proportion”. It therefore refers to the changes in the
proportion of a population of a nation living in urban areas, thus the process of people moving to
cities or other densely populated settlements. Urbanization simply put is the process by which
rural areas transform into urban settlements. Demographically, it involves to elements;
multiplication of points of concentration and increase in size of individual concentration.
Urbanization according to Lewis Writh, 1938 is a relatively large dense and permanent
settlement of socially heterogeneous individuals.
It must be noted that people migrate for several reasons and no single factor acts
independently to influence prospective migrants’ final decision to move. For this reason, a
unified theory to explain rural-urban migration is unrealistic (Hance, 1970, Kasanga and Avis,
1988). However, at any point in time, in a given location where there is voluntary movement, a
particular factor will be more prominent than others. For instance In Ghana, immigration to cities
is the largest source of urban growth and this is caused by push factors (e.g., natural disasters,
and religious persecution) that force people out of the rural areas and by pull factors (e.g.,
economic prosperity, urban lifestyle) that draw them into the cities and urban areas.
1
The main (underlying) causes of urbanization in Ghana include rural-urban migration,
high natural rate of increase and urban bias development strategies. (K. Nsiah, 2003)
Several factors accounts for urbanization, among which some are discussed below;
Economic factor; generally, the commonest activity in rural areas is predominantly
agriculture and it is rain-fed. These therefore compel the rural folk to move to the urban areas
during the dry season to pursue a livelihood which constitute urbanization.
Coupled with the above is the monetization of the urban economy. Abotchie 2001 has observed
that, the monetization of the urban economy has largely accounted for the exodus; from rural
to urban. Rural Ghana is characteristic of low money exchange for labor as well as other
activities. Labor is usually exchanged on casual grounds conforming to tradition and values. The
city on the other hand is known for its paid labor. As a result, there is a pull on the rural folk to
move to the city where his labor will be rewarded with physical money, thus an increase in size
of individual concentration.
Medical factor; Medical personnel are limited to rural areas in terms of adequacy. The
presence of Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHIPS) has helped to improve the
health of the rural population. With this improvement in health facility, less people are dying and
fertility is increasing. As a result of this increasing rural population, people move to the urban
areas.
Cultural factor; Culture engineer urbanization on two diverging lenses; push and pull
factors. First, people are pushed out of rural area to urban areas as a result of unfavorable cultural
conditions such as female genital mutilation (FGM), Trokosi system and early marriage. On the
other hand the urban areas are dominated by western cultures that pull people to urban areas. For
instance, urban dressing style serves as a pull factor on rural folks, causing them to move to
urban areas.
Natural allocation of resources; nature on itself increases the incidence of urbanization in
the sense that, major cities that pull rural folks into cities seem to follow similar trend which is
the endowment of peculiar natural resources. These resources generate multiple positive effects
to its areas. For instance, Accra has a sea and Kumasi has gold as a result majority of people are
pulled towards such areas in a concentric sense, thereby increasing the size of individual
concentration, thus urbanization.
High birth and low mortality rates: Ghana has high fertility and natural rates of
increase in population. Data from censuses and surveys suggest levels of total fertility at 4.4 per
woman in Ghana. GDHS, 2003. According to the Ghana population stabilization report 2003,
“Infant mortality declined from 77 per 1000 live births in 1988 to 66 in 1993 and 57 in 1998 but
rose to 64 in 2003. Currently, infant mortality in Ghana is 50 deaths per 1,000 live births and
2
under-five mortality is 80 deaths. Under-five mortality has shown a similar trend, declining from
155 in 1988 to 111 in 1993, 108 in 1993… even though the country has experienced declines in
infant and child mortality, the current mortality rates are still considered high”. This factor
corresponds to the multiplication of points of concentration in urban areas. According to
Davis 1965, this leads to a rise in the proportion of people concentrated in urban areas, because
people are not dying. Natural increase is fuelled by improved food supplies, better sanitation, and
advances in medical care that reduce the death rates and cause populations to grow both within
cities and the peri-urban areas.
Urban bias development strategies: Pro-urban development strategies adopted by
countries have left urban areas more developed than the rural areas.
Some of such development defects are discussed below:
Concentration of industries; In Ghana, Accra central, Tema, and Kumasi (Asokwa) are
known to be the major industrial areas on the land. The concentration of industries in the major
cities correspond to the concentric ecological model of urbanization, thus establishing such cities
as the hub (central business districts, CBD) of the nation, thereby causing the intensification of
population in such localities.
Infrastructures and superstructures; in developing countries such as Ghana, most
infrastructures, with regard to entertainment, recreation, health and education are mostly
concentrated in the cities. It seems like, anytime somebody needs something, the better version
of that thing is located in the city. In Ghana, sport stadia, entertainment theaters, ports,
recreational parks, etc., are all in the hub of the major cities. This therefore causes urbanization.
The implications of urbanization are numerous. First some positive effects of
urbanization include;
Urbanization leads to economies of scale and cheap labor. Industries benefit from
concentration of suppliers and consumers and allow savings in communications and transport
costs. Cities serve as commercial, administrative, and growth centers and are generally places for
production and consumption of goods and services. It also encourages competition and its reflex
of better services.
Despite the positive aspect of urbanization there are other negative factors associated
with urbanization; as urban areas grow, demand for land for housing, agriculture and urban
infrastructure increases leading to increased pressure on farmlands, forests and water resources.
Rapid urbanization accelerates desertification and environmental change, leading to water
scarcity, soil erosion, and climate change (causing dislodge of nature). It also encourages social
vices such as; armed robbery, rape, etc.
Rural areas on the other hand enjoy urbanization benefits such as; favorable population
density, devoid of social vices. However, on the other hand, it steals labor force from the rural
3
area, thus retarding development in the rural areas. Urbanization also breaks down the extended
family system. It also weakens traditional political system.
A plan to reduce environmental damage caused by rapid urbanization is to plan urban
areas in such a way that they can provide a real sense of community, with good sanitation,
adequate housing, health care and education facilities. The focus of today’s cities must be
towards better urban development. Government policies to urban unemployment and
environmental problems must be based on knowledge of who comes to the city and how they
cause and contribute to the problems in the city. Recycling of domestic and industrial wastes
should be promoted to improve degraded soils and urban agriculture. The need to ensure
effective urban infrastructure planning and enforcing planning laws and regulations is vital.
Developing the rural areas to curb rural-urban migration is crucial to stabilizing rural
urban migration. Intensifying family planning and population control programs in order to
reduce the multiplication of points of concentration in both urban and rural areas is necessary.
Encouraging industries to locate in the rural areas is vital and can be achieved by the integral
involvement of the government.
Although Ghana has become synonymous with rapid urbanization, it is neither a crisis
nor a tragedy. Urbanization has created a host of new opportunities with new and ill-understood
environmental, food and human security problems.
Although urbanization is associated with unemployment and other social problems, however, it
creates the avenue for growth and development of markets for consumer goods and a source of
human capital. The focus on cities must move decidedly towards better planning and
management with past failures giving way to more appropriate policies and practices. Proper
land use planning and urban environmental monitoring are required to solve the problems of
urbanization in Ghana
Reference
4
Abotchie 2001
Davis 1965
Ghana Population Stabilization Report, 2003
Hance, 1970, Kasanga and Avis, 1988
Lewis Writh, 1938
Nabila, 1988, p. 1
United Nations, 1993
Urbanization, Environmental Degradation and Food Security in K. Nsiah, 2003
UN, b,1996
5