Topic 1 Urban Environment
According to Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser (2018) «Urbanization»,
- More than half of the world’s population now live in urban areas — increasingly in highly-dense cities. However, urban settings are a relatively new phenomenon in human history. This transition has transformed the way we live, work, travel and build networks.
- More than 4 billion people live in urban areas globally.
- The UN estimates 2007 was the year when, for the first time, more people in the world lived in urban than in rural areas.
- Estimates on urban populations vary – mainly as a result of disagreements on the exact definition of an ‘urban area’ and what this includes.
- By 2050 it’s projected that more than two-thirds of the world population will live in urban areas.
- It’s projected that close to 7 billion people will live in urban areas in 2050. By 2100, according to the latest UN projections, humanity is expected to have developed into an almost exclusively urban species with 80-90% of people living in cities.
- Cities face a growing challenge to effectively govern, plan, develop infrastructure and support the rapidly growing population and urbanization of their communities.
