ABSTRACT
Box 1.4 Urban Population as a Percentage ofthe Total Population:
Selected Countries in the North and South (1994)
Levels of urbanization can be difficult to compare because of differences in definitions of urbanization. In Japan, settlements with a population of 50,000 or more (and some other settlements defined by the prefectural governments) are counted as urban. Portugal and Switzerland include only settlements with at least 10,000 inhabitants. Australia, the UK and Venezuela routinely count settlements with as few as 1,000 inhabitants as urban. Argentina and Ethiopia draw the line at 2,000 inhabitants. India and the Philippines rely as much (or more) on the density of settlements as the criterion of urbanity as on the number of people in a settlement. In Indonesia and South Africa, a settlement is classified as urban if it has urban characteristics. In Belgium, Brazil, China, Hungary and Trinidad and Tobago, a settlement is considered urban if it has a certain kind of governmental structure (which may beg the question as to why it has such a structure). Because of such differences in definition, comparisons between countries should be made with caution.'
