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Urban areas are not easy to define. We cannot assume that one particular area is rural and another is urban, as individuals have their own definitions. For example, a row of shops in a rural village may be considered to be urban to local farmers. Whereas others may see an urban area as a place with many mixed-use buildings and with a high population density. There are also other terms that further complicate things, such as suburban and semi-rural. Where do rural areas end? Where do urban areas begin? Also when towns expand, their urban areas can often merge together to form a conurbation.

Urban areas are constantly changing and many have developed over long periods of time (except for new towns), in a process called urbanisation; some are getting larger, whilst some are disappearing (historic towns which have stagnated). Therefore the definition is, argably, only valid at any one point in time.

However, it is often necessary to make black and white distinctions for purposes, such as census statistics. However, defining a town in terms of its administrative boundary (which was the case until 1971), does not reflect the development of a town (sometimes boundaries included countryside).

At present, towns, cities, conurbations, municipalities and megalopoli, are commonly considered urban areas, whereas rural settlements are not usually considered urban in any way. Traditionally the concept of a city or town would be a built up area, with a core area that contained a sufficient number of varying services and a transportation network that attracted people to the area.

However, more recently, there are various, commonly-agreed factors, in the UK, that influence whether an area is urban or not (this varies globally). Sometimes urban areas may not be associated with all of these factors at once: - Mixed land-use and irreversibly urban in character (DoE)A population of over 1500Medium to high population or building density (dependent on the area)An area larger than 20haA number of permanent structures (very few actually needed)Distance of less than 200m between groups of structuresA number of built-up sites surroundingA 'reasonably' developed transport systemA variety of services

Ernest Burgess (1886-1966) created the model, on the right, to examine how new migrants adapted to urban life in Chicago.

It was very accurate and relevant at the time, but critics argued that his model could only be applied to cities in America. However, it is an excellent starting point for analysing urban areas and was one of the influences of policy shifts in the UK in the 20th century. Many planners, in modern times, can relate to this throughout the world..

The ideas were taken from the ecology of plant species.

At present , 79% of the UK population live in urban areasThe UKs top ten largest urban areas home one third of the UK populationThe Greater London urban area has the highest population densityUrban areas with high populations are not always the most densely populated

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