Quantifying the Rural-Urban Gradient in Latin America and the Caribbean

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dc.creatorChomitz, Kenneth M.
dc.creatorBuys, Piet
dc.creatorThomas, Timothy S.
dc.date2012-06-18T19:02:07Z
dc.date2012-06-18T19:02:07Z
dc.date2005-06
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-01T01:09:54Z
dc.descriptionThis paper addresses the deceptively simple question: What is the rural population of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)? It argues that rurality is a gradient, not a dichotomy, and nominates two dimensions to that gradient: population density and remoteness from large metropolitan areas. It uses geographically referenced population data (from the Gridded Population of the World, version 3) to tabulate the distribution of populations in Latin America and in individual countries by population density and by remoteness. It finds that the popular perception of Latin America as a 75 percent urban continent is misleading. Official census criteria, though inconsistent between countries, tend to classify as "urban" small settlements of less than 2,000 people. Many of these settlements are however embedded in an agriculturally based countryside. The paper finds that about 13 percent of Latin America populations live at ultra-low densities of less than 20 per square kilometer. Essentially these people are more than an hour's distance from a large city, and more than half live more than four hours' distance. A quarter of the population of Latin America is estimated to live at densities below 50, again essentially all of them more than an hour's distance from a large city. Almost half (46 pecent) of Latin America live at population densities below 150 (a conventional threshold for urban areas), and more than 90 percent of this group is at least an hour's distance from a city; about one-third of them (18 percent of the total) are more than four hours distance from a large city.
dc.formatapplication/pdf
dc.formattext/plain
dc.identifierhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2005/06/5860860/quantifying-rural-urban-gradient-latin-america-caribbean
dc.identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/10986/8317
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-3634
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/415746
dc.languageEnglish
dc.publisherWorld Bank, Washington, DC
dc.relationPolicy Research Working Paper; No. 3634
dc.rightsCC BY 3.0 IGO
dc.rightshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/
dc.rightsWorld Bank
dc.subjectAGRICULTURAL EXTENSION
dc.subjectAGRICULTURE
dc.subjectCENSUS
dc.subjectCENSUS DATA
dc.subjectCENSUSES
dc.subjectCIAT
dc.subjectCITIES
dc.subjectCROPPING
dc.subjectCROPS
dc.subjectDEFORESTATION
dc.subjectEXTERNALITIES
dc.subjectFAO
dc.subjectFARMING
dc.subjectFORESTRY
dc.subjectFORESTS
dc.subjectFRUITS
dc.subjectIFPRI
dc.subjectINTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
dc.subjectLANDS
dc.subjectLATIN AMERICAN
dc.subjectNATURAL RESOURCES
dc.subjectPASTURES
dc.subjectPOPULATION DATA
dc.subjectPOPULATION DENSITY
dc.subjectPOPULATION ESTIMATES
dc.subjectRURAL DEVELOPMENT
dc.subjectRURAL EMPLOYMENT
dc.subjectRURAL POPULATION
dc.subjectRURAL POVERTY
dc.subjectSOCIAL SERVICES
dc.subjectTOTAL POPULATION
dc.subjectTOWNS
dc.subjectTRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
dc.subjectUNITED NATIONS
dc.subjectURBAN POPULATION
dc.subjectURBANIZATION
dc.subjectVEGETABLES
dc.titleQuantifying the Rural-Urban Gradient in Latin America and the Caribbean

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