Urbanization in the Developing World: Too Early or Too Slow?

摘要

Most regions of the world seem fully urbanized. North America, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and West Asia all have shares of the population living in urban areas over 68 percent, with most regions near 80 percent. They also have small annual growth rates in this share, all under 0.62 percent a year and most near 0.25 percent (United Nations 2018). East Asia still has rapid urbanization, but its population is now over 60 percent urbanized and should soon top 70 percent, as in more developed regions. North Africa is onlyjust over 50 percent urban, but that number is stable with little further urbanization. The global frontier of rising urbanization is sub-Saharan Africa (urbanization rate of 40 percent, annual growth rate of 1.4 percent), South Asia (urbanization rate of 36 percent, annual growth rate of 1.2 percent) and South-East Asia (urbanization rate of 49 percent, annual growth rate of 1.3 percent). Urbanization in these regions, and in sub-Saharan Africa in particular, will be the focus of much of our attention.