Box 10A Urban growth

By the turn of the century, almost half of the world population will live in urban areas. The United Nations estimates that by the year 2000, 45 per cent of the population of developing countries (1972 million) and 75 per cent of that of developed countries (945 million) will live in cities. The urban population has grown rapidly, increasing from 14 per cent at the beginning of this century to 25 per cent in 1950. Between 1950 and 1990, the number of people living in cities has more than tripled, increasing from 733 million to 2.26 billion (United Nations, 1991). Urban growth patterns have not been consistent over time and across the various geographic areas (Figure 10.1). Of the developed world's population, 54 per cent was already urban in 1950, reaching 73 per cent by 1990. The developing world's urban population was only 16.9 per cent in 1950, increasing to 34 per cent in 1990. The bulk of urban growth is now taking place in the developing world where the urban population has quadrupled in the last 35 years, while in the developed regions it has doubled. In the developing countries urban growth rates in the 1980s reached 3.6 per cent a year compared to a rate of 0.8 per cent a year in the developed countries.