The Urbanization of Bolivia

Bolivia is a central South American country

It is landlocked and is the highest

country in South AmericaIt is bordered by Brazilto the

North and East, Paraguay andArgentina to the South, and Chile and Peru to the West.

Bolivia contains part of the Amazon Basin centrally and the Andes to the west.

Population:  9.9 millionCapital: Sucre Largest city:  Santa CruzLife expectancy: 63 years (men), 68 years

(women)Area: 1.1 million sq kmGNP per capita: $1,460

Majorly ruralOnly 14% lived in cities of over 5,000

inhabitantsThe country had only declared independence

from the Spanish in 1809, subsequent to which it suffered political instability, dictatorship and a poor economy.

Cities steadily continued to grow thanks to the mining and commerce industries, correlating around the areas where minerals were ripe.

¼ of the population were city dwellers at this time.

This steady growth however, was about to change.

In this period, urban cities grew faster than their rural counterparts.

The fastest growing city was Santa Cruz de la Sierra, increasing at 6.9%, becoming the only major city in the more sparsely occupied east due to oil reserves in the area.

By the 1980s, rates of growth were triple that of the countryside.

This pattern can be seen in Cochabamba

1900, a population of 22,000Population expanded at 2.5%

annually until 1950, when it became 81,000. But until 1976, expanded at 3.5% annually to 200,000 residents.

64% of the population resulted from migration, with 1/3 being born outside the city.

But why did these people migrate?

Migration was originally mainly for economic reasons as of the potential wealth the city offered.

Employment in the manufacturing sector, remained steady at 16 percent of total employment between 1976 and 1986. The lack of growth in this sector, reflected the dwindling resources which the country had. This meant that it was easier to get employment in the tertiary sector in cities such as Cochabamba.

Migrants from the Altiplano, a high plateau in the Andes, climbed to 40 percent in 1976, to 54 percent in 1983, and to 60 percent in 1986. This increasing rate of migration was down to the troubled state of the economy in these areas, such as La Paz due to poor governing and economic planning.

The most prominent issue with urbanisation is the vast inequality in Bolivia.

Most of the wealth is held by ancestors of the original Spanish settlers who made money off it’s resources. The more indigenous population are generally poorer and remain in rural areas or on the outskirts of prosperous areas, such as Santa Cruz.

Exploited resources have began to run dry, so there is fewer resources to fund the developing country.

There is a worry that the economy is too dependent on primary commodities such as natural gas and minerals. The Government has responded to this by taking them back under their own control.

The Government have failed to make the urbanisation equally spread. “The indigenous people in the highlands were historically marginalised due to an exclusion from, and a lack of access to, public services and weak institutions.”

Despite steps to becoming urbanised, 42.2% of the Bolivian population live on under $2 a day and 23.2% on under $1 a day.

Bolivia is one of the poorest and least developed Latin American countries

Two thirds of Bolivians said they would emigrate if given the opportunity