Global Urban Population Projected to Rise by 2050

According to the latest report from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), in every city size class, both the number and the share of the world's population increased during the period 1975-2050.

UN DESA uses seven categories to estimate and project the number of cities and their population share, namely:

• Megacities: 10 million inhabitants or more
• Large cities: 5-10 million inhabitants
• Medium cities: 1-5 million inhabitants
• Small cities: 250 thousand-1 million inhabitants
• Very small cities: 50 thousand-250 thousand inhabitants
• Towns
• Rural areas

According to UN DESA, in 1975, there were only eight megacities, but by 2025, their number increased to 33 megacities.

“The share of the world's population living in megacities increased from below 3% to almost 8% during that period,” UN DESA wrote in its World Urbanization Prospects 2025 report.

Meanwhile, by 2050, the number of megacities is projected to increase to 37, with the world's population share estimated at 7.9%.

The number of large cities, meanwhile, increased from an estimated 14 in 1975 to 71 in 2050, with their global population share rising from 2.4% to 5.1%.

As the population in cities increases, the population in towns and rural areas is expected to decrease, as shown in the graph above.

For towns, UN DESA estimated their population at 38.1% in 1975, projected to be 34.6% in 2050. Meanwhile, for rural areas, the population decreased from 30.8% to 17.1%.