Urban Geography and Demographics Glossary
Conurbation
A large city formed by several municipalities, one central and others peripheral.
A set of independent towns and cities that grow spatially and eventually coalesce to form an urban continuum.
Metropolitan Area
A highly urbanized area that includes a central city and its surrounding peripheral zone, which may include other contiguous satellite municipalities.
Peri-Urban Area
The area immediately adjacent to cities, characterized by a mixture of rural and urban uses, and home to a growing proportion of workers who commute daily to the central city.
Arrabales Históricos
Neighborhoods located beyond the city gates, outside the walls that defined the city in the Middle Ages and modern times.
Baby Boom
A period of time with an unusually high number of births.
Historic Old Town
The oldest part of the city, corresponding to the area traditionally existing within its walls.
CBD (Central Business District)
The core of an urban area.
City Center
One of the sectors within a metropolitan area, comprising the historic old town and its older extensions.
Census of Population
A demographic count and record carried out and published on a fixed schedule, to ascertain the demographic, social, cultural, and economic characteristics of the entire population.
Planned Growth
Refers to an organized and planned approach to growth.
Natural Growth
Also known as vegetative growth, refers to the difference between the number of births and deaths that occur in a region or country.
Real Growth
The relationship between the effects of natural increase and net migration of a population in a given period.
City
A concentration of population of a certain size, which varies by country.
Bedroom Community
A city that develops next to a large city to meet urgent housing demands caused by rapid rural-urban migration and high immigration, whose workforce commutes daily to the central city.
Garden City
Small towns originally planned on the outskirts of cities.
Linear City
An urban core whose goal was to ruralize the city and urbanize the area by creating an elongated city that grows along a communications axis.
Satellite City
A medium-sized town endowed with a certain functional autonomy, located in the suburban zone or near urban production units of a larger central city.
Urban Culture
A set of expressions that characterize the life of a city.
Population Density
An expression that relates the population of a territory to its space, showing the average occupancy rate of that territory.
Location
The physical space where a city is built, such as a plain, a hill, etc.
Ensanche
Planned urban areas developed in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Urban Speculation
Is usually based on the purchase of agricultural land at low cost and its subsequent resale at huge profits for the speculator.
Aging Population
Occurs when, in a country, the percentage of people over 65 exceeds 12% of the total population.
Life Expectancy
Refers to the average number of years a person can expect to live in a country.
Population Structure
Refers to the distribution of a population by sex and age groups.
Urban Structure
The way the parts of an urban unit are organized: Old Town, urban expansion (ensanche), and periphery.
Urban Framework
How inner-city public spaces, their changes, land, buildings, and large open spaces are organized within an urban area.
Call Effect
A process that occurs when an immigrant attracts family or acquaintances to the host country once they achieve economic stability.
Emigration
The transfer of population from one place to another.
Part-Time Employment
Any employment where the work duration is lower than that of normal full-time workers in comparable positions.
Urban Function
A distinguishing feature of a city, often its main economic activity.
Uniparental Family
A family formed by a single adult member.
Fertility
The biological capacity of individuals to reproduce and have children.
Population Sources
All documents that provide insight for the study and analysis of a population.
Habitat
Living space.
Rural Habitat
Living space in rural areas.
Urban Habitat
Synonymous with city; living space in urban areas.
Total Fertility Rate
Refers to the number of live births in a year relative to the number of women of childbearing age.
Immigration
The arrival of population from another territory.
Urban Hierarchy
The ranking of cities in order of importance within an urban network.