Sustainable Cities and Communities
Acknowledgements
This report was prepared by a team led by Patrick Gerland including Sara Hertog, Lubov Zeifman and Guangyu Zhang with contributions from Dong Cheng and Junchi Liu.
Discussion and policy implications
Since 1950, urbanization has emerged as one of the most significant global megatrends, fundamentally reshaping how and where populations live.
National definitions and degree of urbanization compared
Urbanization has long been a central theme in demographic analysis and policy planning; however, its measurement has varied widely across countries and over time.
National application of the degree of urbanization: tools, data, capacity and implementation status
To support the implementation of the Degree of Urbanization, a detailed technical manual was published (European Commission, Statistical Office of the European Union, 2021), accompanied by free software tools, data, and an online training course, in 2021.
Introduction
What is urbanization? At its core, urbanization refers to the increasing concentration of people in settlements that exhibit urban characteristics, such as places with higher population density, greater connectivity and more developed infrastructure, as commonly found in cities and towns.
The anatomy of “urban”: how national criteria shape urbanization statistics
Further insight is gained by examining how the alignment between national definitions and the Degree of Urbanization varies depending on the criteria used to define urban areas.
Preface
This report presents the results of the official United Nations estimates and projections of urbanization for 237 countries and areas of the world and for over 12,000 urban settlements with 50,000 inhabitants or more in 2025, as published in the World Urbanization Prospects 2025.
The world’s cities
What is a city? Most people would agree that cities are places where large numbers of people live and work.