Geo357 Urban Environmental Geography!

World Urban Data Assignment

Answers are found in the 2014 UN report titled, World Urbanization Prospects.

1.! What percentage of the worlds population is expected to live in urban areas by
2050?

! ________
66%

2.! What percentage of the population of Africa is currently urban? And what is that
percentage expected to be in 2050?

! 2014 ________!
40% 2050 ______
56%

3.! How many more people are expected to live in urban areas in 2050 than lives in
them in 2014?

! ________
2.5 billion

4.! What is the minimum number of inhabitants in a mega-city?

! ________
10 million

5.! How many mega-cities are expected worldwide by 2030?

! ________
41

6.! Put the following countries in order from the one with the smallest share of its
total population living in urban areas to one with the largest urban proportion. Put
their rank (1 for least and 6 for most) beside their name below.

! a.! Japan ! ________

4

! b.! Jamaica! ________

1

! c.! Germany!________
2

! d.! Egypt! ________

3

! e.! USA ! ________

5

! f.! China! ________

6
Geo357 Urban Environmental Geography! World Urban Data Assignment

7.! Which of the following statements about how the UN report deals with
inconsistencies in the definition of city is true. Put TRUE or T in next to each true
statement.
!
! a. ________!
T No adjustments were made to national estimates. The UN World
! ! Urban Prospects report simply compiles data presented by
! ! member states.
! b. ________!
T Adjustments are made to national estimates that impose
! ! consistencies between countries. Setting a standard baseline
! ! allows comparison of countries with very different definitions of
! ! what is urban.
! c. ________!
F Adjustments are made to national estimates only when a
! ! definition has changed across time.
! d. ________!
F No adjustments are made to impose consistency in definitions
! ! between countries.

8.! When did the worlds urban population first exceed its rural population?

! ________
2007

9.! Beside the name of each continent, write in the approximate year at which the
urban proportion reached (or is expected to reach) 50% If it happened before the
1950 write, Before 1950.

! ________!
2050 Africa
! ________!
2014 Asia
! ________!
before 1950 Europe
! ________!
before 1950 Latin America & the Caribbean
! ________!
before 1950 North America
! ________!
before 1950 Oceania

10.! In 2014, how many megacities (cities of 10+ million inhabitants) were there on
each continent? (Treat Istanbul, Turkey, as an Asian city.)

! ________!
3 Africa
! ________!
13 Asia (including Turkey, Indonesia and the Philippines)
! ________!
5 Europe
! ________!
4 Latin America & the Caribbean (including Mexico)
Geo357 Urban Environmental Geography! World Urban Data Assignment

! ________!
2 North America (not including Mexico)
! ________!
1 Oceania

11.! What continent has the largest share of the worlds urban population?

! ________
Asia

12.! When classifying the worlds urban population by the size of the city people live
in, which city class size has the largest share of the worlds urban population?

! a.! Urban areas of smaller than 500,000

! b.! Cities of .5 1 million
! c.! Cities of 1 5 million
! d.! Cities of 5 10 million
! e.! Megacities

13! Name all the world regions (the regions listed in all the questions above and used
throughout the UN report) whose largest city size class is not the same as the
answer to Question 12, above.

! ________________________! ! ________________________

! ________________________! ! ________________________

! ________________________! ! ________________________

14.! The UN report names three US cities that lost population between 2000 2014.
What are they?

! ________________________!
Detroit ! ________________________
Buffalo

! ________________________
New Orleans

15.! In a concise and well-written paragraph, summarize the policy implications of

increasing urbanization. (Please type your answer and tape or paste it below.
Maximum length is 180 words.)
Geo357 Urban Environmental Geography! World Urban Data Assignment

16.! Table 1 describes urban and rural population, the urban proportion and average
annual rate of change of the urban proportion for countries and regions. What
regions and countries make up More developed regions?

! ________________________!
Europe ! ________________________
Australia

! ________________________!
Japan ! ________________________
Latin America

! ________________________!
North America ! ________________________

17.! The Table includes data for countries according to their income class. Rank each
income grouping of countries from least urban (1) to most urban (5) in 2014.

! ________!
1 Low income countries
! ________!
2 Lower-middle income countries
! ________!
3 Middle income countries
! ________!
4 Upper-middle income countries
! ________!
5 High income countries
Geo357 Urban Environmental Geography! World Urban Data Assignment

18.! Rank each of the following regions by how rapidly they were urbanizing between
2010 2015. (Write 1 for lowest average rate of change and 7 for the highest
rate of change.)

! ________!
6 Middle Africa Africa
! ________!
7 South-Eastern Asia
! ________!
2 Eastern Europe
! ________!
5 Caribbean
! ________!
4 Central America
! ________!
3 Northern America
! ________!
1 Polynesia

19.! Table 2 lists urban agglomerations with at least 5 million inhabitants in 2014.
Rank the following agglomerations by their average rate of population change.
(Write 1 for the slowest growing agglomeration and 10 for the fastest growing
agglomeration.)

! ________!
1 Seoul, Korea
! ________!
4 Tokyo, Japan
! ________!
2 Los Angeles, USA
! ________!
7 Karachi, Pakistan
! ________!
8 Shanghai, China
! ________!
10 Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
! ________!
6 London, UK
! ________!
5 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
! ________!
9 Bangalore, India
! ________!
3 Chicago, USA

20.! How many of the worlds ten largest urban agglomerations were in Asia in 1990?
How many were in Asia in 2014? How many are expected to be in Asia in 2030?

! a.! 1990 ! ________

3

! b.! 2014! ________

3

! c.! 2030! ________

3