L1 urban issues and challenges

• in 2008, for the first time in history, over half the worlds' population lived in towns and cities
• urbanisation is where there is an increasing proportion of city dwellers in contrast to those in the countryside
• urbanisation is a worldwide process which began at different times in different parts of the world and occured at contrasting paces, even today
• over half the worlds population now lives in cities, by 2030 it is estimated that 60 percent of the population will live in urban areas and by 2050 it will be 70 percent, this process is known as urbanisation
• the worlds largest cities with populations over 10 million are known as megacities
• in 1975 there were only 4 megacities: tokyo, new york, mexico city and sao paolo
• today there are over 20 megacities and the number is growing year by year
• london is not among the megacities because its population is not meant to reach 10 million until 2050
• rates of urbanisation differ between continents
• the highest rates of urbanisation are in poorer, low income countries (LICs) in asia and africa, in most of these countries the majority of the population still live in rural areas and the rate of rural-urban migration is high
• the population of cities in LICs is younger so the rate of natural increase is also high
• there are lower rates of urbanisation in richer high income countries (HICs)in europe, north america and oceania. in these countries, urbanisation has slowed down as the majority of the population already live in cities
• in HICs the urban population is ageing so the rate of natural increase has also slowed down
• one exception to the pattern is South america with many newly emerging economies like brazil. in brazil, urbanisation happened earlier and has slowed down, even though these countries are not among the richer, high income countries