UNITED NATIONS - By the end of this year one half of the
world's population will be living in cities for the first time in human history,
the United Nations said in a new report released on Tuesday.
According to the report, by the year 2050 there will be 6.4
billion people living in cities, up from 3.3 billion at present. The world's
total population is expected to rise to 9.2 billion in 2050 from the current
figure of 6.7 billion.
As urbanization increases, the world's rural population is
expected to begin declining in around a decade and should fall to 2.8 billion
people in 2050 from 3.4 billion in 2007, the report said.
Some countries, like India - home to two of the world's
biggest metropolises, Mumbai and Delhi with 19 and 18.8 million people
respectively in 2007 - aim to slow down the process of urbanization by
encouraging development of rural areas.
Despite the challenges urbanization poses for governments and
local authorities, Hania Zlotnik, head of the U.N. Population Division, told
reporters urbanization is generally a sign of a lively economy.
"Governments would be well advised that urban growth is a
proof of economic dynamism," Zlotnik told reporters.
Still, intense urbanization and the expected addition of
eight new "megacities" - cities with 10 million or more inhabitants - by the
year 2025 will pose new challenges.
Governments need to make sure large urban populations have
access to basic services, above all health care, Zlotnik said.
Asia and Africa are still mostly rural but will see booming
urban populations over the next few decades. Both have around 40 percent in
cities and 60 percent in the countryside now.
But this is steadily changing. Half of Africa's population
will be in cities by between 2045 and 2050 while Asia will reach that point
between 2020 and 2025, Zlotnik said.
Around 40 percent of China's population is in cities now, a
figure that is expected to exceed 70 percent by 2050, when over 1 billion people
will be living in Chinese cities, she said.
By 2025, China's booming foreign investment center Shenzhen,
which borders Hong Kong, will join Beijing and Shanghai as China's third
megacity with 10.2 million people, the UN report projected.
The world's second most populous country, India, has only 29
percent of its population in cities at the moment. By 2050, India will have 55
percent of its people in urban centers.
"India is expected to urbanize much less than China and
therefore it's expected to remain the country with the world's largest rural
population," Zlotnik said.
But India will get two new megacities to join Mumbai and
Delhi by 2025 - Calcutta, which will have an estimated 20.6 million people, and
Madras with 10.1 million.
Europe will continue to lag well behind the urbanization seen
elsewhere, the UN report said. Of the 19 megacities today, the only European
metropolises are Moscow and Istanbul.
By 2025 there will be 27 megacities and Europe will add only
one more to the list - Paris. It will have an estimated 10 million people,
making it number 27 on the list.
Tokyo is projected to remain the most populous city in the
world. With 35.7 million people in its urban agglomeration at last count, this
should rise to 36.4 million by 2025, it said.
Africa currently has only one megacity - Egypt's capital Cairo. Joining the
ranks of megacities by 2025 will be Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo
and Lagos, Nigeria.
