In 2007, for the first time in history, more than 50 per cent of the world’s population will be living in cities. By 2030 this percentage will go beyond two thirds, with more than 90 per cent of urban population growth taking place in developing countries. During the next 25 years, the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) estimates that the number of urban residents will increase by more than 2 billion people, while the rural population will decline by about 20 million, and by 2030, all regions of the world will have urban majorities.

Today there are 20 mega-cities of more than 10 million people, containing 4 per cent of the global population. By 2015, there will be 23 such mega-cities, 19 of them in developing countries.

Urbanization of Poverty

As the population of cities expands, poverty is becoming urbanized. About a third of the world’s urban residents, about 1 billion people, dwell in slums—places characterized by insecurity of tenure, poor housing conditions, deficient access to safe drinking water and sanitation or severe overcrowding.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest proportion of its urban population living in slums – nearly 72 per cent. The largest number of slum dwellers, 554 million people, representing 60 per cent of the world’s total slum population, live in Asia, followed by Africa with 187 million (20 per cent) and Latin America and the Caribbean with 128 million (14 per cent). By 2030, close to 1.7 billion people in low-income and middle-income countries will be living in urban slums.

Urbanization and Development

The issue of urbanization has come to the forefront of the international debate on poverty and development. Helping countries respond to this population shift was a priority for the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994. The ICPD’s Programme of Action declared that urbanization is an “intrinsic dimension of economic and social development” and reflects the rational decisions of millions of migrants worldwide to “seek new opportunities in life” in the cities. It recognized that cities are engines of economic growth and natural focal points for cultural and socio-economic innovation and change. As highlighted in a recent UN-Habitat study, cities contribute to a much larger share of the Gross Domestic Product than their share of the population. Bangkok, for example, with only 12 per cent of Thailand’s population, produces almost 40 per cent of the GDP.

But in many large cities, unplanned growth has led to a crisis in living conditions and in social and health services. The rapid growth of cities caused by migration as well as natural population increases driven by high fertility has outpaced governments’ abilities to provide basic services and economic opportunities. Population growth has strained urban infrastructures and caused severe housing shortages, congestion, higher crime rates and increased pollution, and has contributed to the spread of communicable diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

In the Millennium Declaration, the international community recognized that to halve by 2015 the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, it will have to directly address the needs of the burgeoning population of poor people living in cities. One of the targets set by world leaders in 2000 was to improve significantly the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. Improving access to basic social and health services, including reproductive health care, for poor people in urban slums is critical to breaking the cycle of poverty.

Migration and Urbanization

Unless concerted action is taken to address the root causes of rapid urbanization, including migration from rural to urban areas, the number of people living in slums will grow in the coming years.

Many people migrate to cities from rural areas to seek economic opportunity and to escape deprivation or environmental degradation that has driven them off the land. But often people who leave the countryside to find better lives in the city have no choice but to settle in shantytowns and slums where they lack access to decent housing and sanitation, health care and education—in effect, trading in rural poverty for urban poverty.

An increasingly important goal of development strategies is to enable people living in rural areas to survive and prosper without having to consider migration to cities as their only viable option. Promoting economic and infrastructure development in rural areas and supporting sustainable agricultural practices and sound environmental management can pay off in better lives for people in both the countryside and the city.

UNFPA at Work

UNFPA helps countries to address emerging demographic issues such as urbanization in development and poverty eradication policies, plans and strategies. It assists them to analyze the socio-economic implications of urbanization and to design policies that respond to the needs of diverse demographic groups within cities. The Fund conducts research studies and strengthens national capacity to understand trends and to collect, analyze and use data related to urbanization. For example, UNFPA supports the Center for International Earth Science Information Network in the preparation of a study of priorities in the area of environment, urbanization and sustainable development.

Learn More:
	Task Force on Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers: A Home in the City
	State of World Population 1996, Changing Places: Population, Development and the Urban Future