Urbanisation in the developed world

Urbanisation is the process by which an increasing proportion of a country's population comes to live in towns and cities. In the developed world (HICs such as the UK, Republic of Ireland, USA and Germany) urbanisation is now slow because most people already live in urban areas — the UK is over 84% urban, the ROI 64%.

Causes of urbanisation in HICs

• Industrial Revolution legacy: 19th-century factories drew rural workers into Belfast, Manchester and Birmingham.
• Tertiary and quaternary employment: modern cities such as Belfast and Dublin attract workers into finance, IT, healthcare and education.
• Counter-urbanisation: in HICs, the trend has partly reversed since the 1970s — wealthier residents move outwards to commuter villages (e.g. Holywood, Bangor, Lisburn around Belfast) seeking more space, better schools and lower crime.
• Re-urbanisation: regenerated inner-city zones (Titanic Quarter, Belfast; Docklands, Dublin and London) attract young professionals back into the city centre.

Urban morphology — the classic concentric model

Most HIC cities show four broad zones from the centre outwards.

Zone	Land use	Belfast example
CBD (Central Business District)	Shops, offices, government, transport hubs	Donegall Square, Royal Avenue, Victoria Square
Inner city	19th-century terraced housing, warehousing, often deprived	Falls Road, Shankill, Ormeau Road
Suburbs	20th-century semis + estates, schools, parks	Andersonstown, Stormont, Castlereagh
Rural-urban fringe	Out-of-town retail parks, motorways, commuter villages	Sprucefield, Knockmore, Lisburn

Characteristics of the CBD

• Highest land values → tall buildings, intensive use of space.
• Excellent public transport access (Belfast Grand Central station, Glider routes).
• Pedestrianisation (Cornmarket, Royal Avenue) and 24-hour activity.
• Decline pressures: out-of-town retail (Sprucefield, IKEA), online shopping, vacancy.

Suburbs

• Low-density, mainly residential with local amenities (schools, shops, churches).
• Often laid out in cul-de-sacs from the 1960s–1980s.
• Higher car dependency and longer commutes.

CCEA tip

For "describe the land use of zone X" you must reference the named case study (Belfast is the safe default for CCEA). One named feature + one process scores B2.