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  • Title: Urban primacy in developing countries: the case of Mali.
    Author: Sokona O.
    Journal: Popul Today; 1985 Apr; 13(4):6-7. PubMed ID: 12266918.
    Abstract:
    Only 17% of Mali's population is urban; however, the country's urban population is highly concentrated in the capital city of Bamako. Urban primacy, i.e., the concentration of the urban population in only 1 or 2 centers, is characteristic of many developing countries and is viewed by many social scientists as detrimental to the balanced development of the country as a whole. Political power is frequently concentrated in these large urban complexes. Consequently, the urban centers receive a larger and disproportionate share of the resouces of the nation. In addition, the cities are overburdened and unable to meet the increasing demand for housing and services. In Mali onlu 1.3 million of the country's 7.6 million inhabitants live in cities of 5000 or more; but 38.9% of these urban dwellers live in Bamako. More than 1/2 of the urban dwellers who live in Mali's 13 cities of 10,000 or more are residents of Bamako. Mali's urban population distribution was examined in reference to established urban primacy indicators or standards. The rank size rule is considered to be a standard for the ideal distribution of the urban population. According to the rule, the largest city should only be 2 times as large as the 2nd largest city, the 2nd largest city should only be 3 times as the 3rd largest city, and so on. If the largest city is several times larger than the 2nd city, then the 1st city is considered to be a primate city. Bamako is more than 6 times larger than Segou, the 2nd largest city. Bamako is clearly a primate city. Other indices of primacy are the 4-city primacy index, i.e., the population of the largest city/total population of the next 3 largest cities, and the 11-city primacy index, i.e., the population of the largest city/total population of the next 10 largest cities. These indexes reveal that the population of Bamako is 2.49 times larger than the total population of the next 3 largest cities and 2.34 times larger than the total population of the next 10 cities. These indexes, as well as the small differences between the 2 indexes, demonstrate again that Mali's urban population distribution does not adhere to the ideal rank size rule.
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