Cities in a Development Context
Cities have been growing rapidly all over the world from 3% in 1800 to 14% in 1900, 30% in 1950, over 54% in 2015, and projected to be almost 70% by 2050. For example, Indian urban population is expected to double from 410 million in 2014 by 2050.
Cities serve as concentrated pockets in a densifying population landscape.
Cities are also the engines of economic growth, contributing disproportionately to the formal economy, as seen in the GDP distribution map below
Although the definition of the geographical limits of a city are a matter of debate – e.g. to use an administrative boundary or the concept of “Urban Agglomeration”, or the “metropolitan area” according to socio-economic interconnectedness (see The World Cities in 2016 from the UN). Many urban agglomerations are growing rapidly (see below) – for example, the biggest urban agglomeration in the world has been identified as the Pearl River Delta with a population of 66 million!
The urban population in the developing world expected to double between 2000 and 2030 adding 2 billion city dwellers. However, when seen from a historical perspective, cities don’t necessarily grow steadily as can be seen in the interactive map below:
Cities also have very different ways of growing spatially – see the interactive map below from Bhuwan for Indian cities – pick an city by clicking on the map or from the dropdown and animate the growth of the spatial extent of the city:
Cities are also very different from each other from a thematic perspective. Another way to visualize how cities are very different from each other can be seen from this interactive side-by-side thematic comparison of megacities from the Global Urban Observatory – go ahead and try to compare Delhi, Mumbai, and New York from various perspectives:
Cities are also very different from each other from a thematic perspective. Another way to visualize how cities are very different from each other can be seen from this interactive side-by-side thematic comparison of megacities from the Global Urban Observatory – go ahead and try to compare Delhi, Mumbai, and New York from various perspectives:
