Urbanisation happens when more people move from the countryside to live and work in cities. This makes cities grow very fast. Most people in cities work in services or factories, not in farming. Today, more than half of all people in the world live in cities. Cities give people good chances to find jobs, go to university, get healthcare, and enjoy cultural activities.
To work well, cities need reliable buses and trains, housing, food, and rubbish management systems. Cities are lively places where people share new ideas and different cultures. However, fast-growing cities also have big problems, such as climate change, dangerous air pollution, and environmental damage.
Priya's story: Priya is a young nurse. She moved from a small village to a big megacity to work in a public hospital. The city had better jobs, but housing was very expensive. Because of high costs, she had to live in a poor, informal area outside the city. Every morning, she spends more than two hours on crowded, unreliable buses to get to work. Her story shows how bad transport and expensive housing harm city workers.
Pablo's story: Pablo ran a small bakery in an old neighbourhood for more than 20 years. Then, building companies bought nearby buildings to make expensive luxury flats. Soon, the rent for his shop became three times higher. Pablo could not pay this high price, so he had to close his bakery and move far away from his regular customers. These fast changes (or gentrification) pushed Pablo out and broke up his local community.
Housing inequality and urban poverty: Living near city centres is very expensive. In big Asian megacities like Mumbai or Manila, poor families often live in crowded informal settlements without basic services. In European capital cities like London or Paris, high rents force working-class families to move far outside the city centre. This makes their daily travel to work much longer.
Public safety and inclusive design: Safety in cities is a daily worry, especially for women, children, and older people. Major train systems in Japan and India use women-only train carriages to stop harassment. In Europe, cities like Vienna make streets safer for everyone by adding brighter street lights and wider footpaths.
Gentrification and community displacement: Building expensive luxury homes in old neighbourhoods raises local living costs. In cities like Berlin, Seoul, and Bangkok, new luxury flats replace older, cheaper homes. This forces long-time residents and small local businesses to move away, which destroys community bonds.
Lack of parks and green space: Trees and public parks make cities cooler and keep the air clean, but poorer areas often do not have enough green spaces. Poor neighbourhoods in crowded cities like Jakarta, Cairo, and Athens suffer from extreme summer heat because they have fewer trees and parks than rich areas.
Transport access and economic mobility: Fast, cheap train and bus networks make travel easy in places like Japan, Singapore, and Western Europe. But in fast-growing cities in Latin America and Africa, poor public transport forces low-income workers to travel for hours on crowded, expensive private buses to get to work.
Environmental hazards and health risks: Factories, rubbish dumps, and busy highways are often built near poor neighbourhoods. Because of this, low-income families and schoolchildren suffer from dangerous air pollution, loud noise, and health problems.