Living in the city.

• Position: GRAPH: INTERNATIONAL - Urban population

Migration from farms to cities typically happens gradually as a nation industrializes. It's driven by both "push" factors (like declines in agricultural incomes) and "pull" factors (like employment and other opportunities that cities can offer). But recently, China's farmers have been experiencing a push factor of staggering scope (see article, p. 10). In an effort to drive economic growth, the government is forcing 250 million rural residents to move into towns and cities. Its goal is to have 70 percent of China's population living in cities by 2025. This graph shows how urban China is now-and how it compares with some other nations.

ANALYZE THE GRAPH

(1) To reach its goal of having an urban population of 70 percent, China will need to increase its urban population rate by-- percentage points.

a 9

b 17

c 35

d 48

(2) In which of the following is the urban population less than 70 percent of the total population?

a Mexico

b Russia

c Italy

d all of the above

(3) The urban population of the United States is 10 percentage points higher than that of--.

a Iran

b Mexico

c Australia

d Nigeria

(4) Nigeria has a total population of 174 million. From the graph, you can conclude that about --people live in Nigeria's cities.

a 36 million

b 51 million

c 87 million

d 122 million

(5) You can infer from the graph that--.

a Nigeria has more city residents than India does

b most people in Belgium live in cities

c Algeria has very few cities

d Canada's urban population is below 11 percent

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

(1) What factors do you think might...