Characteristics of Urban Society: Urban societies have the following characteristics:

(i) The cities and towns have a higher density of population than the rural areas.

(ii) Cultural heterogeneity is found in the urban areas because people from various areas having different cultures migrate to the towns in search of employment, education and medical and health care.

(iii) Cities have a distinct environment that is not natural but a man made environment.

(iv) The occupation of the urban areas is mainly non-agricultural, i.e. based on manufacturing, trade & commerce, professional and governance, etc.

(v) In urban areas more social mobility is found in the sense people gradually adapt to class structure (lower, middle or upper class based on economic criteria).

(vi) Formal social control is found in the urban areas in the form of courts, police and other administrative bodies. 

(vii) In urban areas interaction among people is based on secondary contact and not primary contact. It means face-to-face and individual to individual interaction is not possible in urban areas.

(viii) People in the cities have an urban way of life. Which means they have formal interaction, impersonal behaviour, non-kinship relationships, cultural exhibitionism, passing, leisure time in clubs, parks, restaurants, cinema halls or markets.

(ix) The urban economic organisation is based on market and monetary economy.

(x) Civic facilities like roads, electricity, water, communication, parks, hotels and cinemas, etc. are found in urban areas.

(xi) Anonymity is a feature of urban societies. It means people do not know each other in the city as in the villages.