LIVING IN THE CITY

�       Jericho was the site of one of the world’s first permanent settlements
and it was the earliest known defended settlement. The Walls of
Jericho were first built around 9,000 BCE.

�       There were still more people living in rural areas than urban centers
in the world until 2007. Today, about 55% of the world’s population
lives in cities.

�            Although “urban planning” has existed since the first true cities
cropped up 5,000 years ago, it’s more of a modern science. In addition
to determining the layout of streets, urban planners consider
sanitation, zoning, transportation, and other issues.

�            Tokyo, Japan currently holds the top spot as the world’s largest
metropolitan area with about 37.5 million people. The World
Economic Forum predicts that Jakarta, Indonesia will take the top
spot by 2035.

�       Çatalhöyük in Turkey was another one of the world’s first permanent
settlements. Some scholars estimate it had a population of about 6,000
people between 6,700 and 5,700 BCE.

�            It should be pointed out that what constitutes “urban” and “rural”
varies among nations and organizations. In the US, towns with more
than 2,500 people are considered urban while in Japan it’s 30,000.

�       A “megalopolis” is an urban region where major metropolitan areas
have overlapped each other. Bosnywash (Boston, New York, and
Washington) is the best example in the US.

�       With a population of over 300,000, Murmansk, Russia is the largest
city in the world north of the Arctic Circle. The North Atlantic
Current helps moderate Murmansk’s temperatures.

�            A “suburb” is simply a city that is just outside, and often directly
bordering, a major urban city. Suburbs are “urban” according to the
basic definition.

�       For many metro areas in Europe and North America, the suburbs just
outside the city proper are more populated than the city. The creation
of freeways, “white flight,” and the availability of public
transportation are all contributing factors.

�       With a population of 453 and only .19 square miles of area, Vatican
City is one of the smallest “cities” in Europe. It’s important to note
that it’s also a sovereign state.

�       The ancient city of Uruk in Mesopotamia is believed to have been the
first urban center to reach a population of 50,000 people. This was
accomplished around 2,900 BCE.

�            “Ekistics” is the study of human settlements, which utilizes and
overlaps with several other academic studies, including geography,
anthropology, and cartography. Ekistics scholars also classify the size
of permanent settlements (village, town, city, etc.).

�            Rio de Janeiro literally translates into English from Portuguese as
“River of January.” Although the state has more than 200 rivers, the
name was what the region’s first Europeans originally called
Guanabara Bay.

�            The US Census Bureau defines an urbanized area (UA) as an urban
area of more than 50,000 people, while those less than 50,000 are
called urban cluster (UC) areas.

�       Ancient Rome was the first city in the world to reach a population of
one million. It did this in the early Imperial Period (after 27 BCE).