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Rural-Urban Differences: Demographic and
Socio-Cultural Characteristics
by Puja Mondal Difference
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Rural-Urban Differences: Demographic and Socio-Cultural Characteristics!
Rural and urban communities may be distinguished from each other on the basis of several criteria like
occupation, size, and density of population, environment, homogeneity-heterogeneity, social stratification,
mobility and system of interaction:
The term ‘community’ is used by sociologists to describe a quality of relationship which produces a strong
sense of shared identity among persons living in a fixed geographical area. They describe ‘rural’ as a
community and ‘urban’ as a society. When sociologists hold that a society moves from traditional to
modern, they in fact contrast pre-industrial, largely rural, traditional society with industrial, largely urban,
modern society.
While American sociologist Louis Wirth had used the terms ‘rural and urban’ for contrasting communities,
German sociologist Ferdinand Toennies used the terms ‘gemeinschaft and gessellschaft’, M. Durkheim
‘mechanical and organic’ solidarity, and Talcott Parsons ‘traditional and modern’ societies.
Wirth (1938) distinguishing urban from rural society, defined city in terms of three fundamental features:
population size, density, and heterogeneity. These characteristics meant that though the city-dweller
would experience more human contacts than the rural inhabitant, he would also feel more isolated
because of their (contacts) ’emotionally empty’ nature.
According to Wirth, social interactions, typical of city, are impersonal, segmental (narrow in scope),
superficial, transitory, and usually of a purely practical or ‘instrumental’ kind. He describes these as
‘secondary’ contacts which are totally different from ‘primary’ contacts in rural areas. According to Max
Weber, the most fundamental feature of a city is that it functions as a market-place and it displays a
relative predominance of trading-commercial relations.
Rural and urban communities may be distinguished from each other on the basis of several
criteria like occupation, size, and density of population, environment, homogeneity-heterogeneity,
social stratification, mobility and system of interaction:
(1) The main occupation of people in rural community is agriculture though a few people are engaged in
non- agricultural pursuits also. People in urban community are mainly engaged in non-agricultural
pursuits like manufacturing, trade and commerce, service and professions.
(2) Rural communities are of small size while urban communities are of larger size. In India, according to
the 1991 census figures, of the 74.27 per cent population living in villages, 36.57 per cent villages have
population of less than 2,000, 21.37 per cent between 2,000 and 5,000, and 13.33 per cent more than
5,000. On the other hand, of the 25.73 per cent population in urban areas, 0.72 per cent urban areas
have less than 10,000 population 5.27 per cent between 10,000 and 50,000, 2.75 percent between
50,000 and one lakh, and 16.4 per cent above 1 lakh (These figures exclude population of Assam and
Jammu and Kashmir). The averse size of a household in rural areas in 1991 was 4.9 and in urban areas it
was 4.4 members.
(3) Density of population in rural community is low (200 to 1,000 persons per square mile) while in urban
community, it is high (more than 1,000 persons per square mile).
(4) People in rural areas are close to nature while people in urban areas are surrounded more by manmade environment and are isolated from nature.
(5) Rural communities are more homogeneous while urban communities are more heterogeneous.
(6) While rural communities are stratified more on caste and less on class basis, urban communities are
stratified more on class basis.
(7) Mobility in rural areas is more from villages to villages and villages to cities, while mobility in urban
areas is more from one city to another city. In 1991, of the 225 million migrants in the country, 17.7 per
cent had migrated from rural to urban areas, 11.8 per cent from urban to urban areas, 64.5 per cent from
rural to rural areas, and 6 per cent from urban to rural areas.
(8) Relations amongst people in rural areas are predominantly personal and relatively durable while in
urban areas, relations are more secondary, impersonal, casual and short-lived.
(9) The infant mortality rate in rural areas is one and a half time more than the rate found in urban areas
(80:49) ratio.
(10) Labour force participation rate in rural areas is more than three times than that found in urban areas.
In 1993-94, it was 294 million in rural areas against 85.7 million in urban areas. Among males, it is little
less than three times (189.3:67.3 million ratio). While among females it is more than five times (104.7:18.4
million) Manpower Profile, India, 1998:129).
(11) The number of working children in the rural areas is 10 times more than in the urban areas (In 1991,
it was 10.26 to 1.03 million).
If we follow Toennies’ terms gemeinschaft and gesellschaft (1887), it may be said that gemeinschaft
relationships are typical of rural life and gesellschaft relationships of urban life. The gemenschaft type
rural community is characterised by predominance of intimate primary relationships and by emphasis
upon tradition, consensus and informality.
Social bonds are based on close personal ties of kinship and friendship. On the other hand, in the
gesellschaft type urban society, social relationships are formal, contractual, expedient and specialised.
Urban society has weak family organisation and lays stress on utilitarian goals and impersonal and
competitive nature of social relationships.
Following Durkheim’s (1933) concepts of mechanical and organic solidarity, it may be said that solidarity
in rural community is mechanical and in urban community is organic. The rural community based on mechanical solidarity is characterised by homogeneity of values and behaviour (i.e., everybody sharing
same religiously inspired beliefs and habits), strong social constraint and loyalty to tradition and kinship. It
is further characterised by simple division of labour, very little specialisation of functions, only a few social
roles, and very little tolerance of individuality.
The urban community, based on organic solidarity, is characterised by unity based on the
interdependence of a very large number of highly specialised roles, and complex division of labour that
requires cooperation of almost all groups and individuals of the society.
Read the article and outline the differences between rural and urban areas.
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