United Nations expects strong growth of megacities in the next decades

The United Nations estimates that in the year 2030 there will be 43 megacities worldwide with more than 10 million inhabitants, compared to the 31 that currently exist.

This information is part of a report recently published by the United Nations in which it is expected that, in the year 2050, two out of every three inhabitants of the planet will be living in urban centers. This will force to have better sustainable urban development plans, as proposed by the United Nations.

In absolute figures, the forecast of the authors of the report is that by the year 2050 urban areas around the world will have gained a total of 2,500 million inhabitants.

Tokyo (Japan) is currently the most populated city in the world with 37 million inhabitants, followed by Delhi (India), with 29 million, and Shanghai (China), where 26 million people live. The next two cities in the ranking are from Latin America: Mexico City (Mexico) and São Paulo (Brazil), both with 22 million. The following graph shows the ranking of the 30 most populated cities in 2015:

It is estimated that in the year 2028, Delhi will become the most populated city in the world, surpassing Tokyo. And a few years later, in 2035, the forecast is that the population of Delhi will reach 43 million inhabitants, surpassing Tokyo by 7 million.

The UN report estimates that three countries – India, China and Nigeria – will represent 35% of the total growth of the urban population between 2018 and 2050. In particular, India will add 416 million inhabitants in the cities, China, 255 million, and Nigeria, 189 million.