An Urbanizing World: A Publication of the Population Reference Bureau

by Martin P. Brockerhoff

Managing urban population change will be one of the world’s most important challenges in the next few decades. In less developed countries, where 80 percent of the world’s population resides, central issues will be how to cope with an unprecedented increase in the number of people living in urban areas and the growing concentration of these urbanites in large cities with millions of residents. In more developed countries such as the United States, the urban future will involve dealing with complex changes in the composition of urban populations while also containing urban sprawl beyond suburbs into what remains of the countryside.
In Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the unprecedented population growth that characterized much of the 20th century has evolved into unparalleled urban growth. The United Nations (UN) projects that world population will expand from 6.1 billion to 7.8 billion between 2000 and 2025—90 percent of this growth will occur in urban areas of less developed countries.1 By 2020, a majority of the population of less developed countries will live in urban areas. The population of less developed countries will become increasingly concentrated in large cities of 1 million or more residents. There were an estimated 292 such “million-plus” cities in less developed countries in 2000.

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