Question.
Describe the rural-urban composition of the population.
(Class 12 geography, Fundamentals of Human Geography, Chapter-3. Population Composition )
Answer.
Rural and urban populations differ in lifestyle, livelihoods, settlement size, occupational structure, and social conditions, so there is a need to study the rural-urban composition of the population.
There is no universal criterion to differentiate between rural and urban populations. The criteria for differentiating rural and urban populations vary from country to country.
In general, occupation is the mainstay for differentiating rural-urban populations. The majority of the rural population is engaged in primary activities like agriculture and allied activities, fishing, etc. Most of the urban population is engaged in non-primary activities such as manufacturing and service sectors.
As far as the sex ratio of the rural-urban composition of the population is concerned, the sex ratio of Canada and Western European countries such as Sweden and Finland is in contrast to Asian and African developing countries such as Zimbabwe, Nepal, China, and India.
In Western countries, women outnumber men in urban areas, while in Asian and African countries, men outnumber women in urban areas. The reasons for the low number of women in urban areas of developing countries are lack of housing in urban areas, high cost of living, lack of job opportunities for women, and lack of security for women which discourages women to migrate from rural to urban.
In Asian and African countries, there are more women in rural areas whereas, in Western countries, men are more in rural areas. The reason for such a pattern is mechanized farming in developed countries and men are more suitable for mechanized farming whereas agriculture in developing countries is largely labor intensive and women perform well in the manual labor of farming in rural areas.
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