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"Urbanization is defined as a process of people moving into cities and surrounding areas from the more rural areas" ( dictionary.com). Cities are "large and dense settlements" (dictionary.com). Usually, in cities people live so close together that they cannot grow their own food. Due to this, people living in cities depend on food supplies being shipped in to them. Cities first began to develop in ancient times. According to UN,until about 200 years ago, only about 5% of people in the world lived in cities. This means that most of a countries population lived in rural areas where food was grown and produced .

In the 18th and 19th centuries, major changes to economy caused urbanization or movement to cities. This was the beginning of the Industrial Age. The Industrial Age began in Europe at the same time as the population began to rise. At this time, European nations were expanding their trade worldwide and markets for goods became larger. More production was needed to satisfy this trade, therefore, manufacturing economy started. In this type of economy, goods were not just produced for families to survive; goods were produced to trade and create wealth. Also, technological advancement like cotton gin that separated cotton from the seeds and "spinning jenny", which spun multiple threads of cotton at the same time, made work more mechanized. Mining started to develop for fuel purposes, such as coal mining. It was in this Industrial age that James Watt invented the steam engine. By the 19th century, factories opened with lots of jobs for people to take. Due to this, people began to move from rural areas to cities in search of work and this movement was quite fast. For example, according to the US Census data, in the USA in 1800, only 5% of people lived in cities. By 1920 almost 50% of Americans lived in cities!

In the less developed world, urbanization did not happen until the mid 20th century. For example, in the 1950s, 55% of the developed world population lived in cities, while only about 18% of people in the under developed world lived in cities. Then, the population in cities in under developed countries exploded. By 2000, almost 41% of people in under developed countries lived in cities. One of the greatest reasons for this urbanization is overpopulation. With too many people in rural areas, jobs are scarce, forcing people to look for opportunities in cities. Land for agricultural production is also not as available as it once was. Today, half of the people living in the world, which is almost 3 billion, live in cities. This is expected to grow, and by 2050 it is expected that 2/3 of the people will live in cities.

While urbanization helped the economic development in the Industrial Age and helped provide jobs, it also caused some serious issues. A lack of housing tops this list. Cities are densely populated and often there is no available land to build. This makes housing