Urban area

An urban area of Singapore

An urban area is an area where many people live and work close together. The population density is higher than in the surrounding area. It is where buildings are close together. Urban is the opposite of rural, where farm lands and nature are. Urban areas are usually cities and towns. Most of the work available in urban areas is factory and office work. Agricultural work is rare because buildings are close together and there is no space for farm lands.

There are different urban area definitions for each country. The definitions mostly depend on how populated the country is and if the definition shows a true percentage of how urbanized the country is. For example, in Poland an urban area is any place that has the status of a town, whereas in China it is any district, city, or town with a population density higher than 1500 people per square kilometer. The urban population definition for Canadian and Scandinavian countries depends on density. If there is a house every 200 meters it is classified as urban.

A large urban area, with all connected areas (usually developed around some city) is called a Metropolitan area.

Europe

Norway

If two buildings are less than 50 m, from other, then both building can be part of an urban area. Exceptions are made due to parks, industrial areas, rivers, and similar things. Groups of houses less than 400 m from the main (group or) body of an urban area, are included in the urban area.^[1]

Urban Area Media

Skyline of Seoul at night
Aerial view of Greater Adelaide, the parklands serve as a barrier between the inner CBD and encompassing urban area
A satellite view of the U.S. Northeast megalopolis at night, the world's most economically productive megalopolis with over 50 million residents, centered on New York City
Greater São Paulo at night, as seen from the International Space Station
Warsaw metropolitan area
Earth's land use in 2019, built-up area being estimated as 1.5 million square kilometers.
Urban land area (km2), 2010
Urban areas with at least one million inhabitants in 2020
Cape Town, South Africa's second-largest metro by population
A street sign in Vimpeli indicating the beginning of an urban area in Finland