urbanization

Meaning: Urbanization is the rise in the share of a population living in cities. It is driven by rural-to-urban migration, often from push factors such as mechanized farming and pull factors such as jobs, and by growth of urban areas themselves. Effects include higher density, more specialized work, and strain on housing and services. Related processes are suburbanization (movement from the center to surrounding areas) and gentrification (higher-income residents moving into lower-income neighborhoods, raising costs).

On the MCAT: Passages give census or migration data and ask you to link a rising urban share to demographic change, such as the demographic transition, or to social outcomes like unequal access to healthcare, exposure to pollution, and segregation by income or race. Questions may ask you to sort push from pull factors or to name the process in a described neighborhood.

Common confusion: Urbanization is a change in proportion, not just city size. A city can grow while the national urban share stays level if rural areas grow as fast. It is also not the same as suburbanization or gentrification, which describe movement within or around cities. Outcomes differ among groups in the same city.