All the people who live in cities
Hi, it's Veronika here, standing in for Christian, and I've decided to follow up on last week's Weekly Chart from Jona with a look at urbanization trends worldwide.
As my colleague Jona found out, there are many challenges to urban living — environmental factors, like air quality, noise, heat, and access to green spaces, included. Furthermore, the closer to the city centre you live, seen as a convenient choice and future aspiration by many, the more negative factors you're affected by.
This week, let's take a look at urbanization in the big picture! How many people have lived and are going to live in urban areas worldwide?
At the end of last year, the United Nations published its latest World Urbanization Prospects, a report that tracks and predicts the changes in urban and rural population, based on national and international statistics.
The December publication provides the first update of the dataset since 2018, and it projects an additional one billion people to live in cities by 2050, compared to now.
But what sounds like a shockingly large number is actually in line with the trend of the past 25 years. Since 2000, the percentage of the world population living in cities has increased from 39 to 44 percent, and it is predicted to rise to 48 percent by 2050, suggesting that percentage-wise, the growth might in fact start slowing down.
Of course, it will not be the same story everywhere. Half of the near-billion people mentioned above will likely come from only seven countries — India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia — suggesting that some parts of the world will see much greater changes in the coming decades. Not to mention the added strain of climate change, as well as the mental health impacts of urban living.
Do you live in a city yourself, or are you hoping to move to one? I'd be curious to hear your reasons and considerations, both pros and cons, as I navigate my own living situation going forward.
That's it from me this week! You can look forward to a Weekly Chart by our website developer Jonathan next Thursday.
