<P> Urbanization is relevant to a range of disciplines, including geography, sociology, economics, urban planning and public health . The phenomenon has been closely linked to modernization, industrialization and the sociological process of rationalization . Urbanization can be seen as a specific condition at a set time (e.g. the proportion of total population or area in cities or towns) or as an increase in that condition over time . So urbanization can be quantified either in terms of, say, the level of urban development relative to the overall population, or as the rate at which the urban proportion of the population is increasing . Urbanization creates enormous social, economic and environmental changes, which provide an opportunity for sustainability with the "potential to use resources more efficiently, to create more sustainable land use and to protect the biodiversity of natural ecosystems ." </P> <P> Urbanization is not merely a modern phenomenon, but a rapid and historic transformation of human social roots on a global scale, whereby predominantly rural culture is being rapidly replaced by predominantly urban culture . The first major change in settlement patterns was the accumulation of hunter - gatherers into villages many thousand years ago . Village culture is characterized by common bloodlines, intimate relationships and communal behavior whereas urban culture is characterized by distant bloodlines, unfamiliar relations and competitive behavior . This unprecedented movement of people is forecast to continue and intensify during the next few decades, mushrooming cities to sizes unthinkable only a century ago . </P> <P> Today, in Asia the urban agglomerations of Osaka, Karachi, Jakarta, Mumbai, Shanghai, Manila, Seoul and Beijing are each already home to over 20 million people, while Delhi and Tokyo are forecast to approach or exceed 40 million people each within the coming decade . Outside Asia, Mexico City, São Paulo, London, New York City, Istanbul, Lagos and Cairo are, or soon will be, home to over 10 million people each . </P> <P> From the development of the earliest cities in Mesopotamia and Egypt until the 18th century, an equilibrium existed between the vast majority of the population who engaged in subsistence agriculture in a rural context, and small centres of populations in the towns where economic activity consisted primarily of trade at markets and manufactures on a small scale . Due to the primitive and relatively stagnant state of agriculture throughout this period, the ratio of rural to urban population remained at a fixed equilibrium . However, a significant increase in the percentage of the global urban population can be traced in the 1st millennium BCE . Another significant increase can be traced to Mughal India, where 15% of its population lived in urban centers during the 16th--17th centuries, higher than in Europe at the time . In comparison, the percentage of the European population living in cities was 8--13% in 1800 . </P>

How has urbanisation changed from 1950 to the present