As cities in the advanced economies “shrink,” those in the emerging economies of the Third World are exploding. According to United Nations projections, the world will have 22 mega-cities with more than 10 million residents by 2015. Of these, 18 will be in developing
countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and eastern Europe. According to Australia’s Age:
“The UN estimates 45 cities will grow by a million or more people
in the next decade — 44 of them in developing countries, 10 in
India alone. The only city in the rich world to keep pace with that growth
rate will be New York. As developing countries attempt to house more people with no
more land, by 2030, the UN projects, half of Africa’s population
will be living in mega-cities. This trend will be echoed elsewhere: two-thirds of Indonesians
and 60 per cent of Chinese will be living in cramped urban
centres. For how ever poor their housing, the wages they can earn in the
city far exceed what is available to them in rural and remote
villages.”
