'Developing Asia' is urbanising faster than rest of the world

-The Indian Express

‘Developing Asia’ refers to a group of 45 countries that are members of the ADB

The economic outlook update released by the Asian Development Bank last week highlighted that the number of urban inhabitants in ‘Developing Asia’ has increased “almost five-fold since 1970”. The report, tracking World Urbanisation Prospects data, also states that the two-thirds of the nearly 1.5 billion additional city dwellers in the region belonged from India and China.

‘Developing Asia’ refers to a group of 45 countries that are members of the ADB. As such, between 1970 to 2017, the urban population in this bunch of countries grew from 375 million to 1.84 billion. The region led the global increase in the urban population in this period and accounted for 53 per cent of it.

 

 

As the chart (blue bars) shows, Developing Asia urbanised faster than the rest of the world not only in terms of absolute growth, but also in terms of growth rate. Urban population in this region increased at an average of 3.4 per cent per annum between 1970-2017. This is much faster than the 2.6 per cent in the rest of the developing world – mainly Africa and Latin America – and 1.0 per cent in the developed world.

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