From today, for the first time ever, more people will live in towns and cities than in the countryside. The modern rise of the city started in the 1700s when Britain started the Industrial Revolution, becoming the world's first industrialised nation. Britain was the first country in the world in which the majority of its people lived in towns and cities rather than the countyside and London was the largest city in the world for over a hundred years until about 1925, the capital of a huge empire, of course. In 1825, when it overtook Peking as the world's largest, London's population was 1.5 million - small by today's standards but HUGE for the time. Britain, the world's greatest economic, industrial and military power, experienced huge population growth in the 1800s (for much of the 19th century Britain had the fourth or fifth largest population in the world) and London was no exception - its population DOUBLED from 1825 to 1855 and doubled again by 1880.
Man city as more live in towns
By TIM SPANTON
A city dweller
JULY 30, 2007
The Sun
London was the largest city in the world for over a hundred years until 1925. Britain was also the first country in which the majority of its people lived in urban areas
FOR the first time in history, there are more people living in the world’s towns and cities than in the countryside.
Today there are 3,303,992,253 urban inhabitants and 3,303,992,252 rural dwellers, according to latest United Nations estimates.
No one will know the name of the peasant who tipped the Earth from being mainly rural to mainly urban by moving to his or her nearest city.
But they completed a trend that began when the first cities were built 6,000 years ago in what is now Iraq.
Every year some 60million people — equal to the population of Britain — swell cities around the world, according to the UN’s State Of The World report.
Much of the urban growth is happening in Asia — five of the world’s ten largest cities are Asian.
Exodus ... countryside is being abandoned
London was the world’s biggest city for more than 100 years until being overtaken in 1925.
The modern rise of the city was kick-started by the Industrial Revolution that began in Britain in the late 1700s.
It destroyed small-scale cottage industries, throwing many people out of rural jobs.
But increased mechanisation created wealth which in turn created many more jobs, most of them in cities.
London overtook the Chinese capital Peking — today called Beijing — as the world’s biggest when its population reached 1.4million in 1825.
It doubled by 1855, doubled again by 1880 and reached 6.5million in 1900.
By the start of the Second World War in 1939, the economic value of the world’s industrial economies was greater than the combined value of agriculture, fishery and forestry.
People working in industry and city-based services reached 50 per cent around 1983. The figure is now almost 70 per cent.
For better or worse, this is now an urban world.
thesun.co.uk
Man city as more live in towns
A city dweller
JULY 30, 2007
The Sun
London was the largest city in the world for over a hundred years until 1925. Britain was also the first country in which the majority of its people lived in urban areas
FOR the first time in history, there are more people living in the world’s towns and cities than in the countryside.
Today there are 3,303,992,253 urban inhabitants and 3,303,992,252 rural dwellers, according to latest United Nations estimates.
No one will know the name of the peasant who tipped the Earth from being mainly rural to mainly urban by moving to his or her nearest city.
But they completed a trend that began when the first cities were built 6,000 years ago in what is now Iraq.
Every year some 60million people — equal to the population of Britain — swell cities around the world, according to the UN’s State Of The World report.
Much of the urban growth is happening in Asia — five of the world’s ten largest cities are Asian.
Exodus ... countryside is being abandoned
London was the world’s biggest city for more than 100 years until being overtaken in 1925.
The modern rise of the city was kick-started by the Industrial Revolution that began in Britain in the late 1700s.
It destroyed small-scale cottage industries, throwing many people out of rural jobs.
But increased mechanisation created wealth which in turn created many more jobs, most of them in cities.
London overtook the Chinese capital Peking — today called Beijing — as the world’s biggest when its population reached 1.4million in 1825.
It doubled by 1855, doubled again by 1880 and reached 6.5million in 1900.
By the start of the Second World War in 1939, the economic value of the world’s industrial economies was greater than the combined value of agriculture, fishery and forestry.
People working in industry and city-based services reached 50 per cent around 1983. The figure is now almost 70 per cent.
For better or worse, this is now an urban world.
thesun.co.uk
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