The last six decades have been a period of rapid urbanization. More than half of the world’s population now live in cities and towns, compared to just over a third in 1955. And that figure is expected to grow to two-thirds by 2050: a projected additional 2.5 billion people living in urban areas.
At the moment around half of all urban dwellers live in cities of fewer than 500,000 inhabitants. Only one in eight live in one of the world’s 28 “mega-cities” – i.e. one with a population of more than 10 million.
The profile of the world’s largest cities has changed dramatically over the past 60 years, as revealed in these charts based on UN data.