Deindustrialisation

What is Deindustrialisation?

Within Geography, which covers maps, landforms, weather, climate, population and settlements: understand how our planet and people connect, this topic explains Deindustrialisation. Geography explains how places, people and natural processes connect, so each topic here combines a clear definition with a visual model.

Check that you can explain Deindustrialisation in your own words and give one example from everyday life. If you can do that, you have understood the core idea.

Understanding Deindustrialisation helps you explain patterns on maps and in the news, and make reasoned decisions about places and environments.

Deindustrialisation in detail

Deindustrialisation is the decline of manufacturing in a region or country. In the UK, traditional industries such as coal, steel and shipbuilding declined because of cheaper foreign competition, exhaustion of resources, automation and the shift of production overseas to places with lower costs.

It caused job losses, unemployment, urban decline and social problems in former industrial areas, but also opened opportunities for regeneration, such as new service industries, science parks and housing on brownfield sites. The service sector expanded. Regeneration depends on investment, skills and infrastructure.

How the interactive helps you understand Deindustrialisation

Watch the bar chart in the interactive. Use any sliders or buttons it offers to change the values and see how the bar chart responds.

Before you change anything, predict the result. Then change one value at a time and check whether your prediction was right. This is a quick way to build a correct mental model of Deindustrialisation.

Real-life uses and examples

• Explain how Deindustrialisation affects people, jobs and land use in a region.
• Support an answer about Deindustrialisation with a named case study and specific evidence.
• Interpret a graph or map that shows Deindustrialisation and say what it suggests.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Mixing up cause, effect and consequence when you explain Deindustrialisation.
• Writing general statements without a named place or example.
• Learning the definition without testing it. Use the quiz and the interactive to check that you can apply the idea.