# some interesting facts about cities



## spongeg (May 1, 2006)

found at this web site: http://www.cbc.ca/cityspace

a new news program running in Canada in conjuction with the UN forum going on in the City of Vancouver this week...

FACT: By 2015, it is expected that there will be 23 cities with a population over 10 million. 


FACT: By 2010, the top five most populated cities in the world will be: Tokyo 26.4 million | Mumbai 23.6 million | Lagos 20.2 million | Sao Paulo 19.7 million | Mexico City 18.7 million

FACT: By 2030, Asia and Africa will both have higher numbers of city dwellers than any other major area of the world. 

lots of interesting stories to look at, listen to and watch on the website as well as an interesting interactive map


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## Küsel (Sep 16, 2004)

Very interesting, but...



spongeg said:


> FACT: By 2015, it is expected that there will be 23 cities with a population over 10 million.


Today there are already 25 cities over 10mio - if you include Paris, that just made the jump recently, it's 26...



> FACT: By 2010, the top five most populated cities in the world will be: Tokyo 26.4 million | Mumbai 23.6 million | Lagos 20.2 million | Sao Paulo 19.7 million | Mexico City 18.7 million


Tokyo has already now 34mio and because of land shortage in Japan the number will for sure not shrink. Mexico City has nowadays 23mio, the number will stagnate, but don't think that it will lose 4mio in 4 years... Sao Paulo could be right for it's about the number of today and the city doesn't grow anymore and will even lose pop in the next years. But where are NYC (22mio) and Seoul with about the same size? Is North Korea planning an attack in the next years and REALLY hit it?  - Okay, bad taste, sorry  Dehli and Shanghai also will jump over the 20mio limit I guess.



> FACT: By 2030, Asia and Africa will both have higher numbers of city dwellers than any other major area of the world.


I think this is true already today.


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## spongeg (May 1, 2006)

yeah they never seem to give a source where they got the figures

but the forum/conference going on sounds interesting - the news show I watched was pretty cool


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## Audiomuse (Dec 20, 2005)

Kuesel== tokyo city proper is around 8 million. And they are talking about the city proper not metros. Paris is 2.7 million now. 11 million in metro.


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## Küsel (Sep 16, 2004)

They DON'T talk about city propers - how they want to fit 3 times more people into totally overbuilt Tokyo municipality in FOUR years?!!! And suddenly the whole Metro of Sao Paulo (8000 km2) should fit into the municipality area? :lol: 

Maybe they mean URBAN areas but not city propers.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

spongeg said:


> found at this web site: http://www.cbc.ca/cityspace
> 
> a new news program running in Canada in conjuction with the UN forum going on in the City of Vancouver this week...
> 
> ...


I'm suprised to read these facts especially with Lagos.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

I think we are at the point in which for the first time in history, there are more urban inhabitants than rural dwellers on a global scale.


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## Indyman (Apr 1, 2005)

^^True...humans as a species just made that switch.


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## sebvill (Apr 13, 2005)

Yes. This year, is the first one in human history, where there will be more people living in cities (51%) than in rural areas (49%).This is due mainly to a quick urbanization in Asia (China, India, etc.). Africa haven´t change much and remains the World´s most rural continent, while North America, South America, Oceania and Europe have numbers above 70%. This is crucial for us, humans, I think, as Indyman says:this is a change.


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## SHiRO (Feb 7, 2003)

macon4ever said:


> Kuesel== tokyo city proper is around 8 million. And they are talking about the city proper not metros. Paris is 2.7 million now. 11 million in metro.


There is no such thing as a Tokyo "city proper"....


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## James Saito (Nov 6, 2002)

SHiRO said:


> There is no such thing as a Tokyo "city proper"....



Please don't go there...


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

hkskyline said:


> I think we are at the point in which for the first time in history, there are more urban inhabitants than rural dwellers on a global scale.


That's because that's where the opportunities are. It's been a trend of people moving into cities for better life or career thus making alot of them overcrowded.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

WANCH said:


> That's because that's where the opportunities are. It's been a trend of people moving into cities for better life or career thus making alot of them overcrowded.


The cities don't necessarily offer a lot of opportunities for poorly-educated migrants. That's why a lot of the developing countries are very fearful of massive social unrest due to a rural migration to the urban areas. If these migrants can't find jobs, then they'll resort to committing crime. In addition, who will farm the land and provide food for everyone?


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

hkskyline said:


> The cities don't necessarily offer a lot of opportunities for poorly-educated migrants. That's why a lot of the developing countries are very fearful of massive social unrest due to a rural migration to the urban areas. If these migrants can't find jobs, then they'll resort to committing crime. In addition, who will farm the land and provide food for everyone?


For poorly education migrants or the lower class, they do by providing jobs though the salary is low. 

But these kinds of problems is not just happening in developing countries but well developed cities like Los Angeles.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

WANCH said:


> For poorly education migrants or the lower class, they do by providing jobs though the salary is low.
> 
> But these kinds of problems is not just happening in developing countries but well developed cities like Los Angeles.


Developed countries such as the US does not have to cope with several hundred million poor migrants like India and China. They also do not have to worry about a mass migration from the rural to urban areas that developing countries are seeing right now because the income disparity is much smaller.

Even if the poorly-educated migrants are willing to work for a low wage, when so many come to the cities, there simply won't be enough jobs even at a low price.


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## Chicagoago (Dec 2, 2005)

^ yeah, the rural population of the United States is not poverty stricken and poor like many developing countries. Sure there are many poor rural districts in the country, but a vast majority of these people have NO intention of moving to any cities(maybe the educated youth of these areas, but certainly not the working populous). Not saying all people in rural areas of developing counties are poor, but I tend to think that for all the people moving to major cities in the US who are natives of rural areas - there are many many more non-natives who are arriving from other nations.


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## Chicagoago (Dec 2, 2005)

^ yeah, the rural population of the United States is not poverty stricken and poor like many developing countries. Sure there are many poor rural districts in the country, but a vast majority of these people have NO intention of moving to any cities(maybe the educated youth of these areas, but certainly not the working populous). Not saying all people in rural areas of developing counties are poor, but I tend to think that for all the people moving to major cities in the US who are natives of rural areas - there are many many more non-natives who are arriving from other nations.


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## EtherealMist (Jul 26, 2005)

seems like predictions more than facts...


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## Küsel (Sep 16, 2004)

For most of the rural dwellers in Africa or Asia the life and work in a slum in Mumbai or Lagos is still better than where they come from. In the 90s there were studies made in slums of Bangkok and Jakarta - these people are not just "stupid farmers" as many think but also teachers and other studied professionals. But to collect old cigarettes on the street and make new ones out of them to sell them brings them more money as if they would work in a profession in the poverty-striken countryside. And also: these slum dwellers stick together and help each other when in need, the social integration is higher than many think. It's not like in the South American Favelas, where the people nowadays lead a worse life than where they come from and start to remigrate when they have a bit of money, or start not to migrate to the rich big cities but the prospering provincial capitals.

The problem in culture devided countries like Nigeria is that the the different religions, ethnics and cultures are stuck together on narrow ground and poverty in the city slums, this is dynamite!


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## ROCguy (Aug 15, 2005)

I'm surprised this is only happening world wide now this late. Europe and North America were both majority-urban dwelling by the early 20th century.


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