For most of its history, the Dominican Republic was
overwhelmingly rural; in 1920 over 80 percent of its populace
lived in the countryside, and by 1950 more than 75 percent still
did. Substantial urban expansion began in the 1950s, and it
gained tremendous momentum in the 1960s and the 1970s. Urban
growth rates far outdistanced those of the country as a whole.
The urban population expanded at 6.1 percent annually during the
1950s, 5.7 percent annually during the 1960s-70s, and 4.7
percent annually through the mid-1980s. In the early decades of
the twentieth century, the country was not only largely rural,
but the urban scene itself was dominated by smaller cities and
provincial capitals. In 1920 nearly 80 percent of all city
dwellers lived in cities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants.
Santo Domingo, with barely more than 30,000 residents, accounted
for only 20 percent of those in cities. By contrast, in 1981
Santo Domingo alone accounted for nearly half of all city
dwellers; it had more than double the total