UNITED NATIONS ISSUES PUBLICATION ON WORLD'S LARGE CITIES

12 January 1996

Press Release
DEV/2086
POP/602

UNITED NATIONS ISSUES PUBLICATION ON WORLD'S LARGE CITIES

19960112 NEW YORK, 12 January (DESIPA) -- From Abidjan to Yangon, and in hundreds of other urban places around the world, cities face similar challenges as they cope with the needs and expectations of their people on the threshold of the twenty-first century. The Challenge of Urbanization: The World's Large Cities, a study recently published by the Population Division of the Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis (DESIPA), describes 100 cities, highlighting their population characteristics, economy, infrastructure, social services and planning issues.

The new publication will be a valuable contribution to the second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II), which will take place in Istanbul, Turkey, next June. It also complements the biennial publication World Urbanization Prospects, which gives the official United Nations estimates and projections of urban and rural populations and of major cities in all countries of the world.

The focus on cities reflects awareness of the growing percentage of the world population that live in urban areas -- 45 per cent in 1994, according to the most recent United Nations estimates. About 75 per cent of the residents of developed countries are urban dwellers. Cities in less developed regions are typically growing more rapidly, fuelled both by migration from rural areas and by high fertility. Even though the number and size of mega-cities are increasing, about half of the world urban population live in cities with fewer than 500,000 inhabitants.

Population size was only one criterion for inclusion in the study. The report contains a wide range of cities, both ancient and modern, in developed and developing countries, both port and landlocked cities, and cities in diverse geographical settings, from Asia to Africa to the Pacific Islands. It includes cities where population growth has levelled off and cities where growth is explosive.

Each city is introduced with a thumbnail map that shows its location on the globe and a short summary of notable historical and geographical features. The demographic section focuses on such characteristics as population growth and age structure. Some cities, such as Vienna, have a high percentage of older residents, which has implications for city planners. The section on the economy of each city reports on major industries and employment sectors, as well as trends in the labour force, such as a changing percentage of female workers.

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Infrastructure and social services are also addressed in each profile; concerns range from roads and public transportation to housing and water supply. The condition and efficiency of municipal systems range from barely adequate to state-of-the-art, but, as the profiles illustrate, all cities are faced with the similar problems of moving people and goods around and providing basic services, such as water supply and sewerage facilities. The final section discusses planning issues, especially the policies and programmes adopted by municipal governments to sustain and improve the urban environment into the next century.

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Note:The Challenge of Urbanization: The World's Large Cities (Sales No. E.96.XIII.4), at $29 per copy, may be obtained from the Sales Section, United Nations Publications, New York or Geneva; through major booksellers throughout the world; or by writing to the Director, Population Division, Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis, United Nations, 2 United Nations Plaza (Rm. DC2-1950), New York, NY 10017, United States.