美國花了一百年所達到的都市化程度，在台灣僅費時四十年。由於都市化而都市化步調的緩急與全國及地方政經結構之發展有關，並進一步影響到都市建設效率及都市生活品質，因此台灣都市之發展值得加以檢討。 本研究主要根據台灣自1956 至2000 年間歷次戶口普查統計結果，剖析都市化演進與個別都市化理論在時序和發展階段上的符合性，並評價全國及地方政經結構發展與都市化速度的協調程度。

In Taiwan, it took only forty-four years to achieve the same degree of urbanization that required almost a century in the United States. It is obvious that urbanization is determined by the abundance of land resources as well as the speed of population growth and of economic growth. In turn, urbanization has an impact on the configuration of political economy and the quality of urban life. Along with the development of cities everywhere in the world, theories concerning urbanization have also evolved from central place theory, urban base theory, dependency theory, modernization theory to global economic integration theory. Based on the Population Census in Taiwan between 1956 and 2000, this paper explores whether and how well these theories fit the development experiences of cities in Taiwan.