Settlement and Service Provision

Isolated Dwelling - Just one home surrounded by countryside.

Hamlet - Perhaps a phone box and a few houses.

Village - Village shop, place of worship, post office.

Small Town - primary school, general store, bank, hotel

Large Town - Shopping centre, secondary school, college, cinema, sports centre,

City - Department stores, cathedral, university, football and other sports stadiums, airport.

Conurbation - A city that has expanded into the surrounding towns (urban sprawl) and is now one big settlement under one name.

The number of services that a settlement provides increases with settlement size.

Small settlements will only provide low-order services such as a post offices, doctors and newsagents. Large towns, cities and conurbations will provide low and high-order services such as leisure centres, chain stores and hospitals.

Larger settlements and conurbations have a much larger sphere of influence than smaller ones. This means they attract people from a wider area because of the facilities they offer. Cities such as Sydney have a global sphere of influence, whereas a small hamlet like or village, like Taradale, may only have a sphere of influence of a couple of kilometres.

Services such as department stores, like Myers, selling high order goods have a higher threshold than those selling low order goods such as newsagents. This means they need a higher number of people to support them and make them profitable, therefore they will only be found in larger settlements. It also means that there are fewer big department stores than small newsagents.