Welcome to Part 2 of our three part exploration of Singapore and the United States; Part 1 is available and Part 3 is en route.

How Are Urbanization Types In The United States and Singapore Different?

The type of urbanization in the two countries is radically different.  The ratio between urban and rural populations changes between countries.

The United States has 17.1% of its population in rural areas and 82.29% of its population in urban areas.  All of Singapore is urbanized.  In comparison to the United States Singapore’s total land area seems little more than rounding error.

In addition the average space that each per individual is drastically different.  In the United States there is an average 29471 square meters of land per citizen.  In Singpore, there are only 138 square meters per resident in the country.

How Does Land Use Affect Consumer Baskets?

The differences in the nations affect the local economics of each country.  The United States and Singapore have different needs because of their different composition of their respective consumer baskets.

The largest difference is housing.  Singapore residents cram into massive apartment buildings.  In America there is a great diversity of homes.  Americans live in everything from apartments in the inner cities, condos in developments, suburban homes with spacious yards, farms with acres of crops, and isolated cabins.  This greater, more inefficient range, of housing coupled with the American value of owning a home means Americans pay more for housing.  Meanwhile, Singaporean residents can spend their extra funds on more food and beverages, health, and recreation.

Part 1, the exploration of the dissimilar populations of the United States and Singapore, is available.

Part 3 is available.: We explore the similarites between Singapore and the United States in our interconnected world.

Sourcing

FAOSTAT. Web. 31 Oct. 2011. <http://faostat.fao.org/site/666/default.aspx&gt;. 

“Table 1. Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U): U. S. City Average, by Expenditure Category and Commodity and Service Group.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Web. 31 Oct. 2011. <http://bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm&gt;.

 Singapore Government Statistics. Web. 31 Oct. 2011 <http://www.singstat.gov.sg/news/news/cpifeb2011.pdf>

 “Owning a House Still a ‘core Value,’ May Survey Suggests | Hernando Today.” Hernando Today | Hernando Today. Web. 31 Oct. 2011.

<http://www2.hernandotoday.com/business/business/2011/jul/02/HANEWSO5-owning-a-house-still-a-core-value-may-sur-ar-241296/&gt;.