Now we will discuss a complex and important
dilemma in the development process, which is
the movement of people from the rural
countryside to the burgeoning cities of Africa,
Asia and Latin America.
To start our discussion, let us first look at the
trends and projections of urbanization.
It has been noted that there is a positive
relationship between urbanization and per
capita income.
Generally, the more developed the country,
measured by per capita income, the greater the
share of population living in urban areas.
This can be seen in Figure 7.1, wherein the
highest income countries like Denmark,
Switzerland. Luxembourg is most urbanized,
while Rwanda, with the least urban population
has the least GN I per capita. In the present
time, it can be noted that today's poorest
countries are far more urbanized than today's
developed countries when there were at a
comparable level of development as measured
by income per capita. And on average,
developing countries are urbanizing at a faster
rate.
Figure 7.2 shows us the urbanization of
countries across time and income levels.
The solid dot represents the 1970 income and
urbanization level of a given country, while the
diamond at the end of the line segment
represents the 1995 income and urbanization
level of the set country. We can observe that
most of the line segments point to the upper
right, which signify an increase of income and
urban population from 1970 to 1995.
Even when the line segments point to the left,
indicating shrinking incomes per capita over the
period, they still generally point upward,
indicating that urbanization continued. In short,
urbanization is happening everywhere in the
world, although at differing rates.
In most regions of the developing world,
because population is so much larger, the sheer
numbers of people coming into the city is
unprecedented. Also unprecedented is the very
large sizes of individual cities at such low levels
of income per capita. The largest cities in
developed countries in the past were much
smaller than the large cities. Of developing
countries today.
Figure 7.3 shows that most rapid urbanization is
occurring in Asia and Africa.
Other regions have already. High urban
population, but the pace of urbanization is
relatively slow. Visa Aviation’s and Africa’s
before 20-30, more than half of all people in
Asia and Africa will live in urban areas, and then
more than half of the world's urban population
will live in Asia. And the projected 2030 urban
population of Africa of 748 million will be larger
than the entire projected 685 million total
population of euro.
Figure 7.4 shows a map locating mega cities, the
largest cities in the world, containing a
population of at least 10 million people. In 1975
there were only 5 mega cities, namely Mexico
City, Mexico, San Paulo, Brazil, New York, USA.
Tokyo, Japan and Shanghai, China. After a 34
years in 2009, the megacities have increased
from 5 to 21. By 2025, the number of mega
cities is forecasted to increase from 21 to 29.
We're in. Only five of these 29 mega cities are
located in high income countries.
Figure 7.5 shows the estimated and projected
urban and rural population of the more
developed and less developed regions.
Page 3 of 3 Clearly, there is a rapid rise of urban
population among less developed regions, while
the rural population is decreasing. For the more
developed regions, there is a very slight upward
movement of their urban population and very
slow downward movement of the rural
population.

So what if there is a rapid pace of urbanization

among less developed regions? What is the
problem with that?

This all boils down to the question on whether

these cities are capable to cope economically,
environmentally. And politically with acute
concentrations of people. Population growth
and rural to urban migration lead to explosion
in urban shantytowns, and the misguided urban
planning policies and outmoded building codes
of the governments are partly to be blamed.

Figure 7.6 shows the annual growth of urban

and rural slum populations in 1990 to 2001.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the world's most rapidly
urbanizing region, and almost all of this growth
has been in slums, where New city residents
face overcrowding, inadequate housing and a
lack of water and sanitation. The same is true
for Western Asia. The challenge on the rapid
urbanization of developing countries is on their
capability