Mountains: A Very Short Introduction by Martin Price

Author:Martin Price
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780199695881
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2015-06-21T04:00:00+00:00

Mountain settlements

Across the mountains of the world as a whole, most mountain people live in rural areas: about 70 per cent of the total population. However, there are also urban centres of all sizes in and around the edges of mountain areas. This is especially true in tropical and subtropical areas, where mountains are often preferred as places to live over the lowlands, where diseases are more widespread and the climate is less pleasant. Consequently, many of the major cities in Central and South America are in the mountains, including Mexico City (2,250 metres), one of the largest on Earth, with a population of 21 million, as well as the high capital cities of La Paz, Bolivia (3,500–3,800 metres), Quito, Ecuador (2,850 metres: see Figure 13) and Bogotá, Colombia (2,650 metres). The urban proportions of people living in the mountains of these two regions are, respectively, 46 and 55 per cent. For comparable reasons, a quarter of the mountain population in East Africa is urban. In Asia, there are also large cities within mountain areas, particularly in China, and very close to them, including two of the largest cities in the world, Tokyo and Jakarta. However, rural populations in Asia are also very large; only a fifth of the people living in the mountains of South and Southeast Asia are urban. In the industrialized countries as a whole, just over a third of the mountain population lives in urban areas. In the Alps, most of the larger cities are around the edge of the range; the exceptions are Bolzano, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, and Trento. All of these cities are growing, with large peri-urban areas from which commuters travel daily, and are well-connected to international transport networks. In North America, there are also large cities near the mountains, particularly on the west coast and near the Rocky Mountains.

13. Quito, Ecuador: a city of over two million people at an altitude of nearly 3,000 metres.

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