How cities grow: urban, suburban and rural patterns

Grade 9 Social Studies Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Urban shares by region, 2018

   Region	Share of the region's people who were urban	Share of the world's urban people
   Northern America	82%	not given
   Latin America and the Caribbean	81%	not given
   Europe	74%	13%
   Oceania	68%	not given
   Asia	close to 50%	54%
   Africa	43%	13%
   the world	55%	100%

   Note: UN World Urbanization Prospects (2018 Revision). A region's urban share is not the same as its share of the world's urban people. Each country uses its own definition of urban, so a regional share combines countries that define urban places differently.

2. 1.

   Europe and Africa each hold 13% of the world's urban people. Europe is 74% urban and Africa 43%. Which region has more people, Bo?

   • Europe, because its higher urban share of 74% means it has more people in total than Africa
   • Africa: it has about as many urban people as Europe, but they are a smaller share of its people
   • Neither, because each holds 13% of the world's urban people, so they have equal totals of people
   • Europe, because 74% of its people are urban and that is the larger share of the pair
3. 2.

   Asia holds 54% of the world's urban people. Esme says that means more than half of Asia's people are urban. Is that right?

   • No: Asia's urban share is higher than 54%, since Asia has the most urban people of any region
   • Yes: 54% of Asia's people are urban, as the chart shows for Asia in its last column
   • No: 54% is Asia's share of the world's urban people; Asia's own urban share is close to 50%
   • Yes: Asia holds more than half of the urban people, so more than half of its own people must be urban
4. 3.

   The six regional shares have a simple average of about 66%, but the world is 55% urban. Why does Jun not use the simple average?

   • The world share is measured in a different year from the regional shares, so the two cannot be averaged
   • Regions differ greatly in population, so Asia's and Africa's low shares weigh more than small regions' high ones
   • The regional shares must be wrong, since a world share has to equal their simple average, which these figures do not satisfy
   • Rounding in the regional shares adds up to an error of 11 points in the simple average of the six
5. 4.

   Which one number from the chart lets Kira turn Europe's 74% urban and 13% of urban people into Europe's share of all people?

   • The world's urban share, 55%, since the region's share of people scales with it
   • The sum of the regional urban shares, since the regions together make the world
   • Asia's 54%, since it is the largest share of the world's urban people in the chart
   • Africa's 43%, since Africa is the region that also holds 13% of the world's urban people
6. 5.

   Luz says Northern America, at 82% urban, has more urban people than Latin America, at 81%. What do the two shares allow?

   • Nothing about counts: the shares are percents of different totals, and no urban counts are given
   • No: with nearly equal shares, the two urban counts must be nearly equal as well, since 82 is about 81
   • Yes: Northern America is the more urban region, so it has the larger urban population too
   • Yes: a higher urban share of 82% means a larger urban count than the 81% of the other region
7. 6.

   Latin America and the Caribbean are 81% urban and Europe 74%. Milo says the 7-point gap shows exactly how much more urban Latin America is. What is the limit?

   • Europe has older cities, so it is more urban in practice than the chart's shares suggest
   • No limit: the gap is exact because the UN measures each region in precisely the same way
   • Countries define urban in different ways, so the 7-point regional gap is approximate
   • Regions of different sizes cannot be compared, since a share depends on the size of its region
8. 7.

   Asia is close to 50% urban. Noah says a country in Asia must also be near 50% urban. What follows from the chart?

   • It is near 50%, since each country in a region matches the share given for its region
   • It is above 50%, since 54% of the world's urban people live in Asia as a whole
   • It is below the world's 55%, since Asia as a whole is below the world's share
   • A regional share is an average, so a country in Asia may sit well above or below 50%
9. 8.

   Europe has 74% of its people in cities but only 13% of the world's urban people. How can both be true, Pia?

   • The two figures are for different years, so they cannot both describe Europe
   • Europe holds a small share of the world's people, so even a high urban share gives a small share of urban people
   • 13% is the part of Europe's people who are urban, and 74% is its share of the world
   • Europe's cities are small compared with other regions' cities, so they hold few people
10. 9.

    Which sentence about Asia stays within the chart, Ren?

    • Asia is under half urban, so it holds less than half of the world's urban people
    • Asia holds 54% of the world's urban people, so 54% of Asians are urban
    • More than half of Asia's people are urban, and Asia holds 54% of the world's people
    • About half of Asia's people are urban, and Asia holds 54% of the world's urban people
11. 10.

    Four regions are above the world's 55% urban share. Zee says most of the world's urban people therefore live in them. Is that right?

    • No: Europe's 13% is below Asia's 54%, so the four regions together hold less than Asia
    • Yes: their urban shares of 68% to 82% are above the world's 55%, so most urban people live there
    • No: Asia holds 54% and Africa 13%, so the four regions above 55% hold at most 33% of urban people
    • Yes: four of the six regions are above the world's share, which is a majority of the regions