Open the app
  1. Home
  2. Lessons
  3. GCSE & IGCSE Geography A
  4. Rural environments and change

Rural environments and change

🎬 The doodle video for this lesson is coming soon. Subscribe on YouTube to see it first.

Rural areas are changing fast, but in very different ways in rich and poorer countries.

Rural characteristics

Rural areas have low population density, small settlements, lots of open land and a larger share of primary jobs such as farming.
They often have poorer accessibility and fewer services, such as hospitals and secondary schools.
Landscape, climate and land use vary hugely, from farmland to mountains.

Change in developed countries

Remote areas: isolation, fewer farm jobs (because of mechanisation) and closing services cause young people to leave: rural depopulation. This can start a negative multiplier: fewer people, so shops, schools and buses close, so more people leave.
Accessible areas: counter-urbanisation and suburbanisation bring commuters into villages; house prices rise and some villages become 'dormitory' settlements.
Tourism and second homes bring money but can price local people out.

Change in developing and emerging countries

Population growth puts pressure on land; farms are divided into smaller plots.
The farm economy changes, with more cash crops and machinery.
Natural hazards such as droughts and floods destroy harvests.
Rural-urban migration takes young adults to cities, leaving older people and women to farm, though remittances (money sent home) can help.
Worked example

Explain how counter-urbanisation can change a village near a city.

  1. People move from the city to the village and commute to work.
  2. Demand pushes house prices up, so young local people struggle to afford homes.
  3. The village may be quiet in the day, and services such as the shop may close if commuters shop in the city.

Answer: More commuters, higher house prices and possible loss of village services.

Key idea

Rural areas have low density, more primary jobs and fewer services. In developed countries remote areas depopulate (isolation, mechanisation, negative multiplier) while accessible areas gain commuters through counter-urbanisation. In developing countries population growth, changing farming, hazards and rural-urban migration drive change.

Check you have got it

Answer 6 quick questions with instant marking. If you get one wrong, GCSE-ready shows you why and gives you another go. It is free, and you do not need an account.

Practise this lesson free (6 questions)All GCSE & IGCSE Geography A lessons