The Guardian has a short article on the urbanisation of the world population, nothing I haven’t heard before but they also have an attached PDF of the Urban World with some surprising numbers. It shows countries by percentage of population living in cities and the population of the largest cities:
- Except for the UK (90) and Belgium (97!), all European countries have lower percentages than the US (81) and Canada (80).
- Brazil and Argentina are even higher (85 and 90).
- What’s more, those last four are also higher than Japan!! (66).
- Seoul is at 23.2 million.
- NY (21.8) is almost as big as Mexico (22.1), I didn’t realize it had gotten that close.
- India has two over 20 million cities, Mumbai and Delhi.
(via Brand Spanking New)
2 Comments
i think the data would be more relevant if they showed also density of population. 66 is very low for Japan, but I am the density in Japan is so high that even if you live outside a city, it doesnt really make a difference. whereas its the opposite for a country like brazil.
Well I’m thinking “urban”takes into account the type of environment, not simply the distance from major cities but still, good point.