The growth of the urban population is one of the most important characteristics of the modern era. Until recently, the largest megacities of the world were located exclusively in the European region and the old civilizations of Asia - China, India and Japan.
Two centuries of urbanization: 1800-2000
Before the 18th century, no city reached the threshold of one million inhabitants, with the exception of Rome in the ancient period: at its peak, its population was 1.3 million people. In 1800, there was only one settlement with a population of over 1 million - Beijing, and in 1900 there were already 15. The table shows a list of the ten largest cities in the world in 1800, 1900 and 2000 with the corresponding population estimate.
| 1800 | 1900 | 2000 | 2015 | |||||
| 1. | Beijing | 1100 | London | 6480 | Tokyo-Yokohama | 26400 | Tokyo-Yokohama | 37750 |
| 2. | London | 861 | New York | 4242 | Mexico City | 17900 | Jakarta | 30091 |
| 3. | Canton | 800 | Paris | 3330 | Sao Paulo | 17500 | Delhi | 24998 |
| 4. | Constantinople | 570 | Berlin | 2424 | Bombay | 17500 | Manila | 24123 |
| 5. | Paris | 547 | Chicago | 1717 | New York | 16600 | New York | 23723 |
| 6. | Hangzhou | 500 | Vienna | 1662 |
Shanghai |
12900 | Seoul | 23480 |
| 7. | Edo | 492 | Tokyo | 1497 | Kolkata | 12700 | Shanghai | 23416 |
| 8. | Naples | 430 | Petersburg | 1439 | Buenos Aires | 12400 | Karachi | 22123 |
| 9. | Suzhou | 392 | Philadelphia | 1418 | Rio de Janeiro | 10500 | Beijing | 21009 |
| 10. | Osaka | 380 | Manchester | 1255 | Seoul | 9900 | Guangzhou-Foshan | 20597 |
The 1800 ranking reflects the demographic hierarchy. Among the ten most populous cities, four are Chinese (Beijing, Canton, Hangzhou and Suzhou).
After a period of political turmoil, China under the Qing Dynasty experienced a long peaceful period of demographic expansion. In 1800, Beijing became the first city after Rome (at the peak of the Roman Empire) with a population of more than 1 million inhabitants. Then he was number one in the world; Constantinople was in a state of decline. Then London and Paris appear (second and fifth, respectively). But Japan's urban tradition is already evident in this world ranking, as Edo (Tokyo) begins the 19th century with half a millionpopulation close to that of Paris, and Osaka is in the top ten.
The rise and fall of Europe
In 1900, the growth of European civilization becomes evident. The world's major metropolitan areas (9 out of 10) belonged to Western civilization on both sides of the Atlantic (Europe and the USA). The four largest metropolitan regions of China (Beijing, Canton, Hangzhou, Suzhou) disappeared from the list, thus confirming the decline of the Chinese empire. Another example of regression was Constantinople. On the contrary, cities like London or Paris grew at an accelerated pace: between 1800 and 1900, their population increased by 7-8 times. Greater London had 6.5 million inhabitants, which exceeded the number of inhabitants in countries such as Sweden or the Netherlands.
The rise of Berlin or New York has been even more impressive. In 1800, New York City, with its 63,000 inhabitants, was not the size of a capital but of a small town; one century later, its population exceeded 4 million people. Of the 10 megacities in the world, only one - Tokyo - was outside the scope of European settlement.
Demographic situation at the beginning of the XXI century
By the end of the twentieth century, the largest metropolitan areas of the world had a population of 20 million inhabitants each. Tokyo is still expanding to such an extent that the city has become the most gigantic agglomeration in the world, with a population of 5 million more than New Yorkers. New York City itself, long ranked number one, is now in fifth place with around 24 million residents.
At that timejust as in 1900 only one of the ten largest metropolitan areas was outside the European sphere, the current situation is completely opposite, since none of the ten most populated megalopolises belongs to the European civilization. The ten largest cities are located in Asia (Tokyo, Shanghai, Jakarta, Seoul, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen and Delhi), Latin America (Mexico City) and Africa (Lagos). For example, Buenos Aires, which was still a village at the beginning of the 19th century, came in 6th place in 1998 with a total population of 11 million people.
Explosive growth is being observed in Seoul, where the number of residents has increased 10 times over the past half century. Sub-Saharan Africa has no urban tradition and is only at the very beginning of this process, but there is already a million-plus city of Lagos with a population of 21 million.
About 2.8 billion city dwellers in 2000
In 1900, only 10% of earthlings lived in cities. In 1950, there were already 29% of them, and by 2000 - 47%. The urban population of the world has increased significantly: from 160 million in 1900 to 735 million in 1950 and to 2.8 billion in 2000
Urban growth is a universal phenomenon. In Africa, some settlements are doubling in size every decade, as a result of an explosive growth in the number of inhabitants and intense rural emigration. In 1950, almost every country in sub-Saharan Africa had an urban population below 25%. In 1985, this situation continued in only one third of the countries, and in 7 Statesthe number of citizens prevailed.
City and countryside
In Latin America, by contrast, urbanization began quite a long time ago. It reached its peak in the first half of the 20th century. The urban population is still a minority in only a very few of the poorest countries in Central America and in the Caribbean (Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti). In the most densely populated states, the percentage of urban residents corresponds to the indicators of the developed countries of the West (more than 75%).
The situation in Asia is radically different. In Pakistan, for example, 2/3 of the population is rural; in India, China and Indonesia - 3/4; in Bangladesh - over 4/5. Rural dwellers largely predominate. The vast majority of citizens still live in rural areas. The concentration of the urban population is limited to several areas of the Middle East and industrial regions of East Asia (Japan, Taiwan, Korea). The high rural population density seems to limit isolation and thus prevent over-urbanization.
The emergence of megacities
City dwellers are gradually more and more concentrated in giant agglomerations. In 1900, the number of megacities with a population of more than 1 million people was 17. Almost all of them were located within European civilization - in Europe itself (London, Paris, Berlin), in Russia (St. Petersburg, Moscow) or in its North American offshoot (New York, Chicago, Philadelphia). The only exceptions were a few cities with a long history of political and industrial centers of countries with a high population density: Tokyo, Beijing, Calcutta.
Half a century later, by 1950, the urban landscape had changed profoundly. The world's largest metropolitan areas still belonged to the European sphere, but Tokyo moved up from 7th to 4th place. And the most eloquent symbol of the decline of the West was the fall of Paris from 3rd to 6th place (between Shanghai and Buenos Aires), as well as London from the leader position in 1900 to number 11 in 1990.
Third world cities and slums
In Latin America, and even more so in Africa, where the move away from the land began suddenly, the urban crisis is extremely deep. The rate of their development is two or three times behind the rate of population growth; the speed of urbanization is now a burden: accelerating technological change and globalization limit the potential to create enough new jobs, while schools and universities bring millions of new graduates to the labor market each year. Living in this type of metropolis is fraught with frustrations that fuel political instability.
Among 33 agglomerations with more than 5 million inhabitants in 1990, 22 were in developing countries. The cities of the poorest countries tend to become the largest in the world. Their excessive and anarchic growth entails such problems of megacities as the formation of slums and shacks, infrastructure overload and exacerbation of social ills such as unemployment, crime,insecurity, drug abuse, etc.
Further expansion of megacities: past and future
One of the most striking features of development is the formation of megacities, especially in less developed countries. According to the UN definition, these are settlements with at least 8 million inhabitants. The growth of large urban formations is a new phenomenon that has occurred over the past half century. In 1950, only 2 cities (New York and London) were in this category. By 1990, the megacities of the world included 11 settlements: 3 were located in Latin America (Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro), 2 were in North America (New York and Los Angeles), 2 were in Europe (London and Paris) and 4 in East Asia (Tokyo, Shanghai, Osaka and Beijing). In 1995, 16 out of 22 megalopolises were located in less developed countries (12 in Asia, 4 in Latin America and 2 in Africa - Cairo and Lagos). By 2015, their number increased to 42. Among them, 34 (that is, 81%) are located in underdeveloped countries and only 8 in developed countries. The vast majority of the world's megacities (27 out of 42, about two-thirds) are in Asia.
The undisputed leaders in the number of millionaire cities are China (101), India (57) and the USA (44).
Today the largest European metropolis is Moscow, which ranks 15th with 16 million people. It is followed by Paris (29th with 10.9 million) and London (32nd with 10.2 million). Moscow received the definition of "megalopolis" at the end of the 19th century, when the 1897 census recorded 1 million city dwellers.
Candidates for Megalopolises
Many agglomerates will soon cross the 8 million barrier. Among them are the city of Hong Kong, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Taipei-Taoyuan, etc. In the US, candidates are far behind in terms of population. These are the agglomerates of Dallas/Fort Worth (6.2 million), San Francisco/San Jose (5.9 million), 5.8 million Houston, Miami City, Philadelphia.
Only 3 American metropolitan areas – New York, Los Angeles and Chicago – have crossed the 8 million milestone so far. The fourth most populous in the United States and the first in Texas is Houston. The city is on the 64th place in the list of the largest settlements in the world. Promising in the United States and growth is still relatively small conurbations. Examples of such entities are Atlanta, Minneapolis, the city of Seattle, Phoenix, and Denver.
We alth and poverty
The meaning of hyperurbanization varies from continent to continent and from one country to another. The demographic profile, the nature of economic activity, the type of housing, the quality of infrastructure, growth rates, and the history of settlement differ significantly. For example, African cities have no past and are suddenly flooded with a massive and continuous influx of poor rural migrants (mostly peasants) as well as expanding through high natural growth. Their growth rate is about double the global average.
In East Asia, where the population density is extremely high, huge conurbations, which sometimes cover very large areas and include a network of surrounding villages, have appeared due to the improvementeconomic conditions.
In the Indian subcontinent, metropolitan areas like Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, Dhaka or Karachi tend to expand at the expense of rural poverty as well as excess births. In Latin America, the picture is somewhat different: urbanization occurred much earlier and has slowed since 1980; Structural adjustment policies seem to have played a key role in this turnaround.
