Population and urban change in the UK: population change (natural change, ageing, migration), urban land-use patterns, the causes of inner-city change and counterurbanisation, and the impacts of urban change on people and places.

What this dot point is asking

This is part of Eduqas GCSE Geography A (C111) Theme 2, Rural-urban Links, assessed in Component 1. Eduqas expects you to explain how the UK's population is changing (natural change, an ageing population and migration), the land-use pattern of a typical UK city, the causes of inner-city change (decline then regeneration) and counterurbanisation, and the impacts of urban change on people and places.

How the UK population is changing

Three forces drive UK population change.

• Natural change is births minus deaths. The UK birth rate is low, so natural increase is small.
• Migration matters more: net international migration has been the main source of growth, as people arrive for work and study.
• The population is ageing: better healthcare and living standards mean people live longer, while birth rates stay low, so the proportion of older people rises.

The effects of an ageing population

An ageing population reshapes society and the economy.

• Social effects: rising demand for healthcare, social care and care homes; more people acting as unpaid carers; pressure on the NHS.
• Economic effects: a higher dependency ratio (fewer workers supporting more pensioners), rising pension and benefit costs, and a shrinking workforce, though older people also contribute through spending and volunteering.

Urban land-use patterns

A typical UK city has a recognisable land-use pattern from the centre outwards.

• The CBD (central business district) at the core has shops, offices and high land values.
• The inner city is the older ring of nineteenth-century terraced housing and former industry around it.
• The suburbs are the lower-density residential outer city.
• The rural-urban fringe is the edge, mixing housing, retail parks and farmland.

Land values and building density generally fall with distance from the centre.

Inner-city change

The inner city has seen dramatic change in two stages.

• Decline: in the late twentieth century, deindustrialisation closed factories, docks and mills, causing unemployment, poverty, derelict land and out-migration to the suburbs.
• Regeneration: since then, investment and gentrification have redeveloped old industrial sites into offices, flats and leisure (the London Docklands, Salford Quays in Greater Manchester), bringing people and jobs back to the inner city, a process called re-urbanisation.

Counterurbanisation and its impacts

While some return to the inner city, others leave the city entirely through counterurbanisation, moving to smaller towns and villages for space, cheaper housing and a better quality of life, enabled by cars and remote working. This brings money and new residents to rural areas, but can push up house prices, change village character and increase traffic.

The impacts of urban change

Urban change cuts both ways, and Eduqas wants both sides.

• Benefits: new jobs, regenerated land, better housing and services, and reduced dereliction.
• Problems: gentrification raises house prices and rents and can displace poorer original residents; inequality grows between regenerated and left-behind areas; and pressure on housing, transport and services increases.

Try this

Q1. Define the dependency ratio. [2 marks]

• Cue. The ratio of dependents (children and pensioners) to the working-age population; a higher ratio means fewer workers support more dependents.

Q2. Explain one problem caused by gentrification of an inner-city area. [4 marks]

• Cue. Rising house prices and rents can displace poorer original residents who can no longer afford to live there, increasing inequality.