The world population living in urban areas

The world’s urban population is growing faster and faster. According to the UN, there will be 26 cities in the world with over 10 million inhabitants. Those big cities are called megacities, and today there are already about 20 of them. Tokyo, with 33.4 million habitants is the city with the biggest population in the world followed by New York that has 24.1 million habitants. Mexico City is the third biggest, and Seoul comes after that.
In the 1800s, it is estimated that only 2 percent of the world’s population lived in urban areas. In 1950, the urban population had grown to 30 % of the world’s habitants. In 2000, 47% lived in cities or urban areas, and scientists have estimated that the urban population will grow till 52% of all the people in the world, and in 2030 60%.
The different regions in the word have a singular development when it comes to population growth and urbanization. Asia did in 1995, 1180 of 3429 million habitants living in urban areas, and in 2015 it is estimated 1970 million people are the urban population. But then of course, the total population will also increase. In Africa and America, the growth will according to statistics made by BBC, have a quite similar expansion. But in Europe, the urban population will probably not enlarge that much. That might be because of the fact that most people already lives in urban areas in Europe.

Tokyo, megacity. Picture taken from here