The Rise of Cities in the Global South

Posted January 27, 200916 yr

It seems like all people focus on is Dubai :roll:

Mumbai had 3.3 million people in 1981. Today it is 13 million or more, with 20.8 million in its metro area.

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/2486/4902702738317047541o54eds2.jpg

Lagos, Nigeria has 8 million in the city, 9 million in the metro. Lagos is growing 10x faster than New York City.

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/3606/5893814dc1.jpg

Between 1960 and 1980, Mexico City's population more than doubled to 8,831,079. Today the population is 8.8 million but the metro area is about 20 million.

http://www.mikepope.com/Mexico2002/images/MexicoDF_Torre1.JPG

Beijing's population reached 10.86 million in 1990. Today it's about 15 million with migrants accounting for 63% of the population growth.

(notice the homogeneous standardized buildings everywhere - slight relief given by a few random iconic buildings that they're noted for). Seems like China's biggest problem, architecturally. The same is true for Shanghai, etc.

http://springcreekacq.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/Beijing_Skyline_Future.78232615_std.jpg

We're now at a point where more people live in cities than rural areas - in a global context. People looking for opportunity and trying to escape poverty or they're refugees of war.

What do you think the future holds in terms of political power for the world's mega-cities? These global mega-cities trade with each other more than they do with cities within their own country. They also become off-shore tax havens (conservatives love Dublin, Ireland). At the same time, many rural areas farm for export, not for their own country's sustainability. I'm starting to think that political power might shift towards cities or metro areas since their relationship with their states/provinces/country is increasingly irrelevant with globalization. Just look at London. As far as economics are concerned, London IS England. I don't know, what do you all think?

January 28, 200916 yr

Well, I'd keep an eye out for Sao Paulo.

"You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers

March 21, 200916 yr

Largest cities and urban areas in 2020 (1 to 100)

Rank City/Urban area - Country - Average annual growth, 2006 to 2020, in % Population in 2020 (millions). In other words, the first figure after the country name is the percentage it is projected to grow annually and the last figure is the number of inhabitants in millions.

1 Tokyo Japan 0.34%, 37.28 Million

2 Mumbai (Bombay) India 2.32%, 25.97 Million

3 Delhi India 3.48, 25.83 Million

4 Dhaka Bangladesh 3.79%, 22.04 Million

5 Mexico City Mexico 0.90%, 21.81 Million

6 São Paulo Brazil 1.06 21.57

7 Lagos Nigeria 4.44 21.51

8 Jakarta Indonesia 3.03 20.77

9 New York USA 0.66 20.43

10 Karachi Pakistan 3.19 18.94

11 Calcutta India 1.74 18.54

12 Buenos Aires Argentina 0.97 15.48

13 Cairo Egypt 1.56 14.02

14 Metro Manila Philippines 1.55 13.40

15 Los Angeles USA 0.58 13.25

16 Rio de Janeiro Brazil 0.93 13.23

17 Istanbul Turkey 1.75 12.76

18 Shanghai China 0.00 12.63

19 Moscow Russia 0.58 11.73

20 Osaka, Kobe Japan 0.13 11.53

21 Beijing China 0.19 11.15

22 Lima Peru 1.53 10.32

23 Paris France 0.21 10.18

24 Tianjin China 0.55 10.14

25 Lahore Pakistan 3.12 10.10

26 Bogotá Colombia 1.84 10.08

27 Kinshasa Congo 3.89 10.04

28 Bangalore India 2.79 9.92

29 Chicago USA 0.80 9.84

30 Wuhan China 2.87 9.18

31 Seoul South Korea -0.50 8.88

32 Chennai (Madras) India 1.68 8.88

33 Tehran Iran 1.28 8.86

34 Riyadh Saudi Arabia 3.09 8.82

35 Hyderabad India 2.21 8.61

36 Baghdad Iraq 2.37 8.41

37 Hong Kong China 0.97 8.33

38 Chittagong Bangladesh 4.29 7.87

39 Ahmadabad India 2.73 7.78

40 Bangkok Thailand 1.11 7.76

41 Surat India 4.99 7.72

42 London UK -0.02 7.59

43 Pune (Poona) India 3.46 7.53

44 Belo Horizonte Brazil 1.99 7.18

45 Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam 2.07 6.79

46 Santiago Chile 1.17 6.71

47 Dortmund, Bochum Germany 0.04 6.61

48 Miami USA 1.32 6.59

49 Kabul Afghanistan 4.74 6.56

50 Khartoum Sudan 2.41 6.46

51 Atlanta USA 2.64 6.44

52 Toronto Canada 1.48 6.34

53 Chongqing China 1.46 6.20

54 Bandung Indonesia 2.90 6.19

55 Jidda Saudi Arabia 2.93 5.94

56 Philadelphia USA 0.67 5.88

57 Yangon Myanmar 2.46 5.87

58 Dallas, Fort Worth USA 1.53 5.83

59 Beihai China 10.58 5.82

60 Hanoi Vietnam 2.26 5.78

61 Houston USA 1.61 5.49

62 Madrid Spain 0.30 5.39

63 St Petersburg Russia 0.05 5.39

64 Shenyang China 0.51 5.30

65 Brasília Brazil 2.99 5.25

66 Singapore Singapore 1.13 5.24

67 Sydney Australia 1.09 5.18

68 Dar es Salaam Tanzania 4.39 5.12

69 Abidjan Côte d'Ivoire 2.49 5.11

70 Casablanca Morocco 2.07 5.09

71 Boston USA 1.07 5.08

72 Luanda Angola 3.96 5.06

73 Nairobi Kenya 3.87 5.02

74 Algiers Algeria 2.74 4.93

75 Washington DC USA 1.03 4.90

76 Ankara Turkey 1.97 4.85

77 East Rand (Ekurhuleni) South Africa 2.89 4.82

78 Jaipur India 3.60 4.79

79 Alexandria Egypt 1.62 4.77

80 Addis Ababa Ethiopia 3.40 4.76

81 Phoenix, Mesa USA 2.10 4.69

82 Johannesburg South Africa 2.20 4.67

83 Pôrto Alegre Brazil 1.26 4.60

84 Guadalajara Mexico 1.03 4.56

85 Barcelona Spain 0.14 4.52

86 Kanpur India 2.53 4.44

87 Fortaleza Brazil 1.95 4.39

88 Salvador Brazil 1.80 4.38

89 Medellín Colombia 1.98 4.38

90 Recife Brazil 1.39 4.36

91 Detroit USA 0.52 4.29

92 Monterrey Mexico 1.27 4.27

93 Melbourne Australia 0.99 4.26

94 Chengdu China 1.17 4.14

95 Faisalabad Pakistan 3.32 4.13

96 Kano Nigeria 2.34 4.07

97 Curitiba Brazil 2.18 4.00

98 Guangzhou China 0.16 3.97

99 Cape Town South Africa 1.44 3.92

100 Lucknow India 2.72 3.89

http://www.citymayors.com/statistics/urban_2020_1.html

March 21, 200916 yr

It surprises me that out of all 100 cities, only Seoul and London are projected to have negative growth rates.

March 21, 200916 yr

This is interesting. Look at the population density of Tokyo vs. New York City!! (these stats are current). Look how dense Mumbai is. Mumbai doesn't even look that dense in pictures. I know NYC has a larger land mass which could easily lead to less people per km but nyc is still very dense. I guess staten island is to blame.

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/2737/largestcity.jpg

March 21, 200916 yr

New York isn't as "people dense" in many areas as it used to be. Think of it in those terms where families were all living in one room. I believe the census describes a unit as overcrowded if there is more than one person per 1.2 rooms, meaning every individual should at least have a bedroom and a bathroom, or you are living in an overcrowded environment. Imagine NY back in the day, it may have approached numbers more similar to developing cities where people are indeed living on top of each other.

March 21, 200916 yr

Yeah, they're literally slums in the western world's historical sense. It would surprise a lot of people that in the 1700-1800s houses didn't have so many rooms with separate functions and kids slept in the same room as their parents.

I think this rapid urban development is going to bring a lot of opportunity to planners/developers/architects etc. in western countries. It sounds exciting.