Global Urbanization

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In 2014, with 54 per cent of the world’s population, more people live in cities than in rural areas. According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) (2014) estimations, by 2050, two thirds of the world’s population will be residing in cities – around five billion people. Africa and Asia are the two regions with the highest growth rates of urbanization; it is projected that the urban population in these two regions will increase by 2.25 billion people by 2030, representing 90 per cent of the total projected increase of the world’s urban population. Since 1990, the number of mega-cities that host more than 10 million inhabitants has nearly tripled, and by 2030, there will be 41 of them, the majority in the Global …show more content…

The scale and velocity of urbanization, especially in the developing world, poses significant challenges for the provision of public infrastructure, including safe housing and quality health services, particularly in resource-poor countries. As summed up by UNDESA (2014:3), “rapid and unplanned urban growth threatens sustainable development when the necessary infrastructure is not developed or when policies are not implemented to ensure that the benefits of city life are equitably shared.” Strikingly, urban poverty is on the rise (Baker, 2008): While many urban dwellers benefit from the opportunities that city life entails, many others remain in deprivation. The large socioeconomic inequality within cities stems from the fact that urban living and working conditions are very heterogeneous and, in addition to large global health inequities between countries, one’s place of residence within a city largely determines one’s health and wellbeing. Moreover, in the last decades the number of poor urban dwellers residing in slums and informal settlements with inadequate infrastructure has been increasing and is currently estimated at some 863 million; this means that every third urban dweller lives in a slum (UN‑Habitat, …show more content…

However, migrants are often left out of public health services, if public health services exist at all. The most vulnerable among urban migrant populations are those who do not have a regular residence permit status, and those with specific health needs, such as women, children and the

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