Around the world, rural people are moving to cities and urban areas, so populations in the countryside are decreasing. Is this a positive or negative development?

In modern society, more and more

people

migrate from counties to

cities

for some reason,

such

as higher wages, higher welfare treatment, and better living conditions. Some

people

argue that

this

trend affects rural society, but in my opinion, it is a positive development for the whole country.

First,

urbanization

brings economic growth.

Urbanization

translated into countries switching sectoral composition away from

agriculture

into industry and technological advances in domestic

agriculture

releasing labor from

agriculture

to migrate to

cities

.

In other words

, the transfer of labour from less efficient agricultural sectors to more efficient non-agricultural sectors enhances the production efficiency of the whole society.

For instance

, London was one of the first

cities

to experience

urbanization

. Between 1700 and 1800, London grew from 600 thousand to 1.1 million residents.

This

was

due to

industrialization and the growth of urban factories that had a strong need for labour.

People

started moving to London in search of work in the factories.

Although

there was air pollution with

urbanization

, Britain transformed from a backward agricultural country to the world's most advanced capitalist industrial powerhouse, known as the "factory of the world" Meanwhile, the increase in urban population brings a large amount of consumption, which largely drives the market demand.

Second,

rural populations, whose livelihoods mostly depend on

agriculture

, are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. They have high natural resource dependency and limited ability to cope with and manage risk.

This

means once a disaster has recurred, they cannot overcome it easily.

For instance

, Beijing and its environs experienced heavy rain in 2020, and many houses and vast

areas

of farmland in rural

areas

have been destroyed by a rush of water, but there was almost no news of buildings being destroyed in urban

areas

, which means that urban

areas

have stronger capability to withstand natural calamities.

Third,

cities

provide more job opportunities and better infrastructure

such

as education and healthcare, which will help improve the living standards, education levels, and

overall

health status of immigrants. Those things cannot be provided by rural

areas

. From the whole perspective,

this

trend will not only give more

people

a better life but

also

make social development faster.

Although

there were some problems with rapid

urbanization

, the advantages it brings more than compensated for those problems.