urban slums
Impoverished city neighborhoods
Urban slums are densely populated, impoverished areas within cities, characterized by substandard housing, inadequate sanitation, and limited access to basic services.
The term emphasizes the urban context—distinguishing these neighborhoods from rural poverty.
Slums often develop informally on the outskirts of rapidly growing cities or in neglected inner-city zones: The urban slums of Mumbai house millions.
The phrase appears frequently in development policy and journalism.
- povertySevere lack of resources
- shantytownPoor area of crude shelters
- favelaBrazilian informal settlement
- ghettoSegregated urban quarter
- overcrowdedFilled beyond capacity
tenement · squalor · makeshift · makeshift shelters · corrugated · tin roofs · sewage · open sewers · running water · alleyways · cramped · survival · desperation · tin · cardboard · dirt floors · unemployment · crime
- povertypoverty line, poor, poverty rate, impoverished, generational poverty
urban slumsaffluent suburbs
Prosperous areas near cities
gated communities · Beverly Hills · Park Avenue · Upper East Side · mansions
urban, slum, urbane, urbanity, urbanize, urbanization, suburban, suburbanite, suburbia