Regional assessment of Africa

Abstract

Although there is large spatial variation in rates of change across the 55 nations of Africa, the combined impact of high natural population growth and rural-to-urban migration means that Africa is urbanizing faster than any other continent. At a growth rate of nearly 3.4 % per annum, Africa’s urban population is the fastest growing in the world. Currently nearly 40 % of Africa’s inhabitants live in cities (UN Habitat 2010), which is expected to more than double from 395 million people to 1 billion in 2040. In some cases, it is projected that city populations will swell by up to 85 % in the next 15 years. The Nigerian city of Lagos, home to 8 million in 2000, is anticipated to exceed 16 million by 2015. Several other cities such as Abuja, Abidjan, Addis Ababa, Kano, Kinshasa, Luanda, Nairobi and, Ouagadougou are all expected to grow by more than one million by the end of this decade.