Africa has a larger urban population than North America, reveals an international development study released on Monday.
The 2007 edition of the International Institute for Environment and Development’s (IIED) urban-change analysis found that 25 of the world’s fastest growing large cities were in Africa.
”The research highlights the gap between rapid urban growth and government capacity to plan and manage it in most of Africa, Asia and Latin America,” said the institute in a statement.
Its study showed that half the world’s urban population now lived in Asia.
Asia also had half the world’s largest cities and half of the fastest-growing ones.
”Since 1900, Europe’s share of the world’s 100 largest cities has fallen from more than half to under 10%.”
Researcher David Satterthwaite said the study showed most future growth in urban areas would be in low- and middle-income countries.
”The world’s urban map is rapidly being redrawn,” he said.
The study also found that many of the world’s largest cities now had more people moving out of them than into them.
Far more people lived in smaller urban areas of under one million inhabitants than in ”mega-cities”.
The research indicated the speed of urban growth had been exaggerated in low- and middle-income countries, especially African ones.
Worldwide, a billion people were shown to live in low-quality housing or squatter settlements with inadequate water and sanitation.
Economic growth appeared to be the main driver towards urbanisation in countries.
The IIED’s study drew on the latest urban data from the UN’s population division and a review of 70 recent censuses. — Sapa