Urban-Rural Differences as a Function of the Demographic Transition: Egyptian Data and an Analytical Model

Data from contemporary Egypt refute almost all the generalizations about urban-rural demographic differences that have been developed from the study of industrialized countries. However, if these deviations are viewed as functions of the temporal sequence of the demographic transition from a preindustrial to a postindustrial equilibrium, then the discrepancies revealed through cross-cultural comparisons can be reconciled and even predicted.