Industrial regions are those areas, where concentration of industries has occurred due to favorable geo-economic conditions. These are areas within which manufacturing industry is carried out on a relatively large scale and employs a relatively large proportion of population.

 

The spatial distribution of manufac­turing units shows a distinct trend of localization towards a few selected areas; these regions are referred to as ‘industrial regions’.

 

The common characteristic features of the industrial regions are:

1. Large population engaged in industrial pursuits,

2. Large industrial complex in hierarchical order,

3. Integration of some main industries with a group of subsidiary industries,

4. Large banking and credit facilities,

5. A network of communication lines, and

6. A large market for labour supply, etc.

 

The industrial regions of the world are very unevenly distributed over the face of the earth. Both natural and cultural factors are involved in any explanation of the distribution of manufacturing regions of the world, but the great differenti­ations in localisation of any industrial region can be explained to a large degree by the availability of resources.

 

Since the development of machinery, many industrial centres have sprung up where there is abundance of coal, or coal and iron, or extensive water-power – the mainsprings of modern industry, and all such towns are more or less business centres.

 

There are several factors affecting the concentration or localisation of industry. The main localising factors are: the market, the labour supply, the cost of land resources, the situation of raw material, the nature and situation of the natural and human resources, the value of the commodities produced in relation to the cost of the various items entering into their production, and finally, the supply of capital.

 

It is obvious that the profitableness of large scale operations must depend on the adequacy of the market, which is governed by various conditions as:

 

1. The number of people where the industry is carried on.

 

2. The purchasing power of the people, a great contrast in this respect being presented by developing countries as compared with developed countries and other semi-developed countries, in which the letter’s purchasing power is enhanced by the diffusion of education, and probably still more by the extent of the available undeveloped resources.

 

3. The nature of the commodity for which a market is sought – cheap goods for peoples of small purchasing power, more valuable commodities for regions in which individual wealth is greater.

 

4. Facilities for transport in enlarging the range of the market.

 

The spatial distribution of the industries shows a trend of concentration or agglomeration of industries in few regions where geo-economic conditions of industrial growth are favourable. These industrial regions have variety of indus­tries and other infrastructures and are famous for their production of particular or varied types of industrial goods.

 

The major industrial regions of the world are as follows:

1. North American region, comprising USA and Canada.

2. European region, consisting of the industrial region of UK, Germany, France, etc.

3. Industrial region of former USSR.

4. Asian region, comprising the industrial regions of Japan, China, India, etc.

5. Other isolated industrial regions.

 

Smrite Chand (2015), Industrial Regions: Characteristic, Conditions and Major Industrial Regions of the World, Your Article Library.

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