World Urbanisation: Trends and Patterns

Abstract

This chapter attempts to overview the trend and regional pattern of world urbanisation. It also analyses the spatial pattern of urban hierarchy of cities by size class of settlements. The results show that global urban population has grown significantly from 0.75 billion in 1950 to 4.22 billion in 2018. The projected estimates show that by mid-twenty-first century, 68% of the world’s population will live in urban areas. The growth trend of global population shows a consistent increase in urban population during 1950-2025, thereafter, a slowdown is projected during 2025-2050. The spatial pattern of urbanisation shows that epicentre of the urbanisation has shifted from global north to global south. Cities in Asia and Africa are currently growing faster as compared to other regions, and future estimates show that African cities will take the lead globally during 2015-2050 with faster growth rate. The highest number of mega and large cities have increasingly mushroomed in Asia and Africa. Projections indicate that this trend is likely to continue. The concentration of small- and medium-sized cities in these two regions has also increased over time. Two Asian countries-China and India will be home of some of the world’s largest cities in twenty-first century. The future global urban population will be concentrated mainly in Asia and Africa. In contrast, several cities in Northern America and Europe are shrinking. The challenges posed by climate change are likely to impact the entire globe. With increasing level of urbanisation, cities of the global south are facing multiple challenges of food security, poverty, access to housing and basic amenities, especially with regard to the urban poor. In this context, it is important to highlight that national urban policies in Asian and African countries, which are currently least equipped to deal the challenges of urbanisation, need to address these issues in a manner which will lead to sustainable development. Countries from these two regions need to build capacities to deal with the added challenges of globalisation, income and spatial disparities as well as demographic dividend. National urban policies could be instrumental in guiding these countries towards sustainable and resilient future.