Urbanisation’s different strokes

Source: The post is based on an article “urbanization’s different strokes” published in the Business Standard on 18^th August 2022.

Syllabus: GS 1 – Urbanization, their problems, and their remedies.

Relevance: Trends of Urbanization in the world

News: Recently, the United Nations released the World Urbanisation Prospects: 2018 Revision.

Trends of Urbanization

Global Trend

Since the 1960s, Urbanization has grown from around 33% in the 1960s to 55% in 2020.

Further, as per projections, urbanization is going to accelerate in the next few decades,

The correlation between the transformation from a rural to an urban economy and an increase in the urban proportion is expected to increase in the coming period.

Regional trajectories of urbanization

Developed Countries

In 1950, approx 64% of the population was living in urban areas in North America. In 2020, North America has become the most urbanised region, with 82% of its population living in urban areas.

Other regions

In the 1950s, around 17.5% and 14% of the population were living in Urban areas in Asia and Africa respectively.

In 2020, Asia had an urbanization rate of 50% and Africa had an urbanization rate of 43%. Further, Central Asia has higher urbanization than any other Asian region (48%). Further, East Asia has a greater urban proportion (64.8%t). Moreover, in East Asia, more developed countries like China and Japan have higher urbanization rates.

In South Asia, 16% of the population was living in urban areas in 1950. This was increased to about 36.6% (2020). Further, the Indian urbanization rate was more than the South Asian average.

What are the reasons for variation in urbanization across the world?

The presence of sub-regional and inter-regional disparities exists due to different levels of development and industrialization in different countries.

There are other reasons for the variations, which range from different rates of natural population growth in rural and urban areas, uneven rural-to-urban migration, international migration, and the growth of urban settlements.

Administrative changes like reclassification or changing the definition of what constitutes an urban area also impact the level of urbanization in a country.

Moreover, economic change and spatial planning, which includes housing, infrastructure, and service delivery, are strongly related to the extent and pace of urbanization as well as the underlying demographic dynamics.

Importance of Urbanization

According to the World Bank’s feature on urban development, almost 80% of global gross domestic product (GDP) is being generated in cities

Urbanization led to higher development, shared prosperity, and welfare, as well as a rise in formal employment and labor productivity in a country.

What should be done?

The urbanization trajectory of developing countries like China and Nigeria must be watched. These countries contribute at least 33% to the global urban population by 2050.

To trigger urbanization, policymakers should focus on equipping our cities with infrastructure facilities to cater to the needs of a rising population. For this, the impetus should be to attract investment and opportunities in infrastructural development and a greater focus on ease of living for its people.

There should be equitable development to avoid the concentration of population in only a few cities, and to narrow the rural-urban disparity and the disparity among cities and megacities.