United Nations (ANTARA News/Xinhua) – By the end of this year, half of the world`s 6.7 billion people will live in urban areas, according to a UN report released Tuesday.
The 2007 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects, prepared by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), provides the official UN estimates and projections of the urban, rural and city populations of all countries in the world up to 2050.
The latest data contained in the report confirms that ” urbanization is growing everywhere,” said Hania Zlotnik, director of DESA`s Population Division, at a press briefing at the UN Headquarters.
Zlotnik added that perhaps the most important message of the report is that not all the regions of the world are equally urbanized.
“Although Asia and Africa are the least urbanized areas, they account for most of the urban population of the world,” she stated, adding that the growth of the urban population in the years to come is going to be highly concentrated in these two regions.
Currently there are 1.6 billion people living in Asia`s urban areas. That number is expected to rise by another 1.8 billion people in the next four decades, more than doubling the urban population, Zlotnik pointed out.
China, which is now 40 percent urban, is expected to become more than 70 percent urban by 2050. Its urban population is expected to number about 1 billion by that year.
In comparison, only 30 percent of India`s population today is living in urban areas — slightly more than 300 million people. By 2050, 55 percent of India`s population will be living in urban areas, amounting to 900 million people.
Turning to Africa, she noted that the urban population is ” likely to triple over the next 40 years,” passing from 340 million to over 900 million.
Meanwhile, the urban population will grow a little bit in Latin America, while not very much in the developed world, she said, adding that “more or less what we have today is what they`re going to face.”
According to the report, there are now 19 “megacities” — those with more than 10 million inhabitants — around the world. But by 2050, the number will increase up to 27