For the first time in history, more people live now in urban than in rural areas. In 2010, urban areas are home to 3.5 billion people, or 50.5 per cent of the world’s population. In the next four decades,all of the world’s population growth is expected to take place in urban areas, which will also draw in some of the rural population through rural to urban migration. Migration from rural to urban areas has historically played a key role in the rapid growth of cities and, together with the reclassification of rural localities into urban centres, it continues to be an important component of city growth. This report discusses recent research on trends and challenges of urban growth, internal migration, and population distribution, the linkages and disparities between urban and rural development, the challenges of climate change for the spatial distribution of the population, social aspects of urbanization, including its impacts on health, and aspects of urban planning and urban governance.
URL : 20131119033302.pdf