Urbanization Level and Urban Concentration: Comparative Paths and a Performance Index

Seifelnasr, A. (1980). Urbanization Level and Urban Concentration: Comparative Paths and a Performance Index. IIASA Working Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: WP-80-070

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Abstract

An attempt has been made to examine the development of the urbanization process in two basic dimensions: urbanization level and urban concentration.

To facilitate the regional and temporal comparisons, a summary measure that combines the two dimensions is introduced and its use is illustrated using data compiled in UN (1979). The historical development of the two dimensions, together with the measure, has been depicted on a graph which shows compactly the path that has been followed in the course of urbanization.

Finally, the urbanization "performance" (from the demographic point of view) is compared over time and across space with the help of a comparative index that takes values between zero and one (called the performance index). This index is found to be strongly (although tentatively) related to a summary measure of the deviations between the observed urban distribution and the empirically common rank-size distribution.

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