Resumo

GUTIERREZ DE MACGREGOR, María Teresa  e  GONZALEZ SANCHEZ, Jorge. Proposal to set ten thousand inhabitants as the boundary to define an urban town. Invest. Geog [online]. 2001, n.44, pp.103-118. ISSN 2448-7279.

This paper analyses the functional, statistical and socio-economic criteria that are the bases to set ten thousand inhabitants as the boundary for defining an urban town in Mexico. The various criteria proposed in Mexico to define urban population are briefly described. The issue of classifying a population as urban has a long history at an international level; several definitions have been proposed by different authors, which illustrates the difficulties that researchers have faced in their attempts to unify criteria. The present proposal considers the behaviour of five socio-economic variables: economically active population devoted to non-agricultural activities, mean annual demographic growth, imigration rate, literacy and population having completed the basic education. From the comparative analysis of this information it is concluded that most towns with a population between 10 and 14.9 thousand inhabitants possess features that match the definition of urban towns. The adoption of this boundary with an important weight establishes qualitative changes that help to classify a town as urban, and this should be reflected in quantitative studies focused on urban population.

Palavras-chave : Urban boundaries; urban population; delimitation of urban units; distinction between urban and rural.