Studies of African urban development have used the term “peri-urban" to refer to residential development at a city’s edge. No one, however, has developed a precise definition of peri-urban areas which guides this research. This study attempts to define peri-urban areas using an urban economic model and analyzes the African peri-urban literature in the context of this model. This review of the literature produces several hypotheses, which are then tested using data from a housing survey done in thirty-two Kenyan cities by the Kenyan government. The first set of hypotheses examined ways in which peri-urban areas differed from central city areas in their physical development. Houses in peri-urban areas were found to be newer, lower quality, built on land held informally, and with lower levels of urban services. The second set of hypotheses concerned the development of rental housing in peri-urban areas. Homeownership rates were higher in peri-urban areas than in central city areas, although a person renting a home in a peri-urban area was likely to have better accommodations than a peri-urban homeowner. Finally, the cities in the survey were grouped according to city size and growth rate, and the effects of these variables on the development of peri-urban areas were tested. The results of this section were somewhat inconclusive, as other factors, such as environment and politics, influence urban development. The conclusion of this research is that peri-urban areas are different from central city areas due primarily to the fact of their recent urban development on formerly agricultural land. This study was just a small step in understanding patterns of peri-urban development. The peri-urban zone can provide a valuable unit of analysis for studying the process of urban development, provided it is rigorously defined. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning