Life in Different Cities: Home

"More than half of Earth's population lives in cities—and many of them reside in megacities, the world's largest urban aggregations ... "

"Megacities have been defined by the United Nations as cities with more than ten million inhabitants ... "

"Populations are shifting from rural areas to growing cities, creating megacities in the process. Because so many people arrive in cities before more houses or infrastructure are built to absorb them – with the exception of China, where migration is more subject to central control – a large percentage of the initial growth in megacities is likely to be in slums ... "

"According to a UN Habitat forecast, two thirds of the world's population will live in cities by 2030 ... "

"There are now over thirty megacities, the biggest being Tokyo, with over 38 million people. What features do these cities share share and how do they differ? ... "

"Electric bikes and scooters are making cities quieter. Shenzhen in China has been billed as the first quiet megacity, with electric buses as well as scooters. Technology platforms are improving public transport. Cities are becoming better at managing water supplies, sometimes of necessity ... "

"Across the globe and in a short amount of time, we’ve given up the tractor for the city bus, the open landscape for one of brick and mortar. We are now an urban planet. In fact, by 2008 over 50 percent of the global population was living in urban areas ... "

"Transitions from rural to urban living are often prompted by promises of increased economic opportunities and cheaper health care, education, and transportation. However, these rural-to-urban transitions are often chaotic ... "

"Mass migration from rural areas to urban centers gives rise to megacities—cities housing more than 10 million people, which are often the centers of economic activity in a given country. New York and Tokyo were the first to be recognized as megacities in the 1950s ... "

"All cities have gone through the ebb and flow of social distancing and lockdowns, with regulations repealed as cases decline and hurriedly re-imposed when cases return ... "

"Has COVID-19 killed the megacity? The pandemic is certainly reshaping globalisation, turning the hubs of the pre-2020 global economy into epicentres of contagion and leaving their future hanging in the balance. But the crisis has also simply highlighted megacities’ existing vulnerabilities and accelerated processes that were already under way ... "

Videos, text and activities are supplied by Lattitude Geography on the challenges faced by citizens of megacities.