What Is a Settlement?
A settlement is any place where people live. Settlements range enormously in size — from a single farmhouse on an isolated hillside to a sprawling megacity housing tens of millions of people. Geographers study settlements to understand why people have chosen to live in particular places and how settlements grow and change over time.
The site of a settlement is the exact land it is built on. People historically chose settlement sites that offered:
- A reliable supply of fresh water (river, spring, or well)
- Flat land that was easy to build on and farm
- Natural defences — a hilltop, a river bend, or a coast
- Shelter from harsh weather
- Resources such as timber, stone, or farmland
The situation of a settlement is its position relative to surrounding features — whether it is near trade routes, at a river crossing, on a coast, or at the meeting point of valleys.
The Settlement Hierarchy
Settlements can be arranged in a hierarchy from smallest to largest. As settlements get larger, they offer more services and have a greater sphere of influence — the area around them that people travel from to use their services.
| Settlement Type | Approximate Population | Typical Services |
|---|---|---|
| Hamlet | Fewer than 100 | Usually none — perhaps just a farm or two |
| Village | 100–2,000 | Village shop, primary school, pub, church |
| Small town | 2,000–10,000 | Supermarket, secondary school, GP surgery, bank |
| Large town | 10,000–100,000 | Hospital, cinema, leisure centre, various shops |
| City | Over 100,000 | University, large hospitals, major transport links |
| Conurbation | Millions | Multiple merged cities, metro rail, international airport |
These population ranges are guidelines — different countries define these terms slightly differently.
The world's largest urban conurbation is the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan, home to approximately 37–38 million people — more than the population of Canada. Other megacities (cities with over 10 million people) include Delhi, Shanghai, São Paulo, Mexico City, and Cairo. There are now over 30 megacities in the world, most of them in Asia.
Settlement Functions
Every settlement has a function — the main reason it exists or the main activity its population is engaged in. Functions include:
- Market town: Grew up where farmers from surrounding areas came to buy and sell goods.
- Ports and fishing settlements: Grew up on coasts and rivers for fishing and sea trade.
- Mining settlements: Sprang up where valuable minerals were found (coal, gold, etc.).
- Industrial towns: Grew rapidly in areas with factories during the Industrial Revolution.
- Cathedral cities: Grew up around medieval cathedrals, which were important religious and administrative centres.
- Route centres: Developed where roads or railways meet, making them natural hubs.
- Resort towns: Grew up on coasts or in mountains to serve tourists.
A settlement that once had a single function often acquires more functions as it grows. Many market towns, for instance, later became industrial centres and then retail and service centres.
Why Settlements Grow
Settlements grow when more people move in than move out, and when more people are born than die. Growth usually happens when:
- New industries or businesses create jobs, attracting workers.
- Good transport links (roads, railways, ports) make a place accessible.
- Natural resources are discovered nearby.
- The area offers good quality of life — safe, affordable, and well-served.
Some settlements decline when their original reason for existing disappears — for example, if a mine closes or a factory moves elsewhere. Such settlements may lose population and services over time.
In the UK, many town names tell you about their origin. "-wich" or "-wich" (Norwich, Greenwich) often indicates a Saxon trading settlement. "-ford" (Oxford, Hereford) means a river crossing. "-chester" or "-caster" (Chester, Lancaster) comes from the Latin castra, meaning a Roman military camp. These place-name clues help geographers and historians understand how old a settlement is and why it grew where it did.
Settlement Patterns
Viewed from above (on a map), settlements may have different shapes depending on the landscape and how they developed:
- Nucleated: Buildings clustered tightly together around a central feature (market square, church, crossroads). Common where land is flat and fertile.
- Linear: Buildings arranged in a long line, usually along a road, river, or valley floor.
- Dispersed: Buildings spread out across the landscape with no distinct centre. Common in areas of poor farmland where each family needed a large plot.
Real world: Milton Keynes — a planned new town
Most British towns grew organically over centuries. Milton Keynes is different: it was deliberately planned and built from scratch in the 1960s as a solution to London's housing overflow. Today, it has a population of around 280,000. Its grid-road layout, roundabouts, and separation of pedestrian and vehicle routes were all designed intentionally — a stark contrast to the organic medieval street plans of nearby Bedford or Oxford. Milton Keynes is now a large town with a university, shopping centre, and major employment base, demonstrating how settlement function and form can be designed rather than evolved.
Real world: Detroit — a city in decline
Detroit in Michigan, USA was one of the most prosperous cities in the world in the mid-20th century, with a population of 1.8 million in 1950 — built on the car manufacturing industry (Ford, General Motors, Chrysler). When the US auto industry declined from the 1970s, Detroit lost its economic base. Factories closed, jobs disappeared, and people left. By 2020, the population had fallen to around 670,000 — less than half its peak. Whole neighbourhoods were abandoned, schools closed, and services collapsed. Detroit filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history in 2013. It is a classic case of a settlement declining when its original function disappears.
Real world: Tokyo — the world's largest urban conurbation
Greater Tokyo is the world's largest urban area, with roughly 37–38 million people in the metro region — more than the population of Canada. It grew from a small fishing settlement (originally called Edo) that became Japan's political capital in the 17th century. Tokyo's hierarchy is extreme: at its centre is the Imperial Palace and CBD; around it are 23 special wards forming a dense urban core; beyond those lie suburban cities connected by one of the world's most efficient commuter rail networks. The area shows all levels of the settlement hierarchy existing simultaneously — from tiny neighbourhood-scale shopping streets to international airports, universities, and global financial markets.
Where do you see this in real life? Think about your nearest large city or town. Does its name, location, or street plan give clues about why it grew there? Is it on a river, at a crossroads, or near a former mine or factory? Many cities carry their origins in their names, layouts, and oldest buildings — geography helps you read those clues.
Practice Problems
Explain the difference between the site and the situation of a settlement and give an example of each.
Show answer
Describe how the services available in a settlement change as you move up the settlement hierarchy from village to city.