Berghs betraktelser

Vad är sambandet mellan länders urbaniseringsgrad och befolkningens hälsa? En ny studie har undersökt frågan. Ur abstract:

the present study examined the impact of urbanization on health outcomes by considering 204 countries from 1960 to 2021. We measured urbanization by considering three proxy variables; total urban population, percentage of the urban population, and percentage of the population living in million-plus agglomerations.

Overall estimated results suggested a negative effect on the fertility rate and a positive impact on life expectancy at birth due to urbanization. A mixed impact of urbanization was perceived on the infant mortality rate.

[...]

The Granger causality test indicated that the relationship between urbanization and health outcomes is bidirectional. The panel cointegration test suggested that there is a long-run relationship between them. Order logit regression results suggested that the impact of urbanization on health outcomes may vary with the different stages of development a country is experiencing. The results indicate that well managed urbanization is beneficial for achieving higher health outcomes.

Källa: Tripathi, Sabyasachi, och Moinak Maiti. "Does Urbanization Improve Health Outcomes: A Cross Country Level Analysis". Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science 7, nr 1 (mars 2023): 277–316.

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Ur The Washington Post:

According to the United States’ original 1950 urban classifications, rural America is crushing it. It’s home to about as many people as urban America, and it’s growing faster. So why do headlines and statistics paint rural areas as perpetually in decline?

Because the contest between rural and urban America is rigged. Official definitions are regularly updated in such a way that rural counties are continually losing their most successful places to urbanization. When a rural county grows, it transmutes into an urban one.