More Than Half of Humanity Now Lives in Cities

 

NEWSMAX

VERBATIM

90% would be fine with me.

For the first time in history, more than half of the people on earth live in urban areas, and 51 percent of them — 1.92 billion — reside in urban areas with more than 500,000 residents. 

That's one of the disclosures in the latest edition of Demographia World Urban Areas, which provides data on estimated population, area, and population density for the 922 urban areas with at least 500,000 population.

Demographia defines an “urban area” as a "continually built up land mass of urban development that is within a labor market (metropolitan area)." A metro area also includes economically connected rural land outside the built-up urban area, while an urban area does not.

Of the urban areas with 500,000 residents or more, 56 percent are in Asia, 14 percent in North America, 11 percent in Europe, 10 percent in Africa, 8 percent in South America, and 1 percent in Australasia.

There are now 29 megacities — urban areas with at least 10 million population — including London, which passed the 10 million threshold this year. That’s according to an article on the Demographia report from Newgeography.com written by Wendell Cox, principal of Demographia, an international public policy and demographics firm.

Tokyo remains the most populous urban area, as it has been for a half-century, with 37.55 million residents, but its margin over other cities has been narrowing.

Jakarta, Indonesia, is second with 29.95 million, followed by Delhi, India (24.13 million) and Seoul-Incheon, South Korea (22.99 million).

Manila, Philippines, moves up to No. 5 with 22.71 million, passing Shanghai, China (22.65 million). Rounding out the top 10 are Karachi, Pakistan (21.58 million); New York (20.66 million); Mexico City (20.3 million); and Sao Paulo, Brazil (20.27 million).

Los Angeles ranks No. 16 with 15.25 million, and Chicago is No. 35 with 9.23 million. The least populous American urban area on the list of 922 is Toledo, Ohio, at No. 861 with 508,000 population.
In terms of land area, New York is by far the largest urban area with nearly 4,500 square miles, ahead of Tokyo with 3,300 square miles. Several other U.S. urban areas are in the top 10 in land area, including No. 3 Chicago (2,647 square miles), No. 4 Atlanta (2,645), No. 5. Los Angeles (2,432), No. 6 Boston (2,056), No. 7 Dallas-Fort Worth (1,998), No. 8 Philadelphia (1,981), and No. 10 Houston (1,793). Moscow, Russia is No. 9 with 1,800 square miles.

Due to the relatively large land area of U.S. cities, no American urban area is among the world's most densely populated.

Dhaka, Bangladesh, is the most densely populated, with 114,000 people per square mile. Hyderabad, Pakistan (not India), is behind at 105,500, and Mumbai, India, has 83,800.

The most densely populated European urban area doesn’t appear on the list until No. 296 — Genoa, Italy, with 20,800 per square mile.

And to find the most densely populated U.S. urban area, you'll have to go all the way to No. 794 on the list of 922. That's where you'll find Los Angeles, with 6,300 people per square mile.