Published June 15th, 2006 by Future Atlas
Urbanization to 2015: interactive map
The BBC has created an interactive map of world urbanization from 1955 to 2015, including all megacities of 5 million or more.
The 2005 map reveals that we are approaching the tipping point at which, for the first time ever, more people will live in cities than in rural areas.
By 2015, 52% of the world’s population (3.8 billion people) is projected to be living in cities.
Effects will be profound and numerous. For instance:
- Cultural flows will speed up as more people are exposed to cosmopolitan urban culture.
- Information will speed up, as cities tend to be far more wired.
- In future conflicts, controlling contries will mean controlling megacities, a difficult challenge that tends to nullify the high-tech advantages enjoyed by the US and a few other countries.
[Via Social Technologies]