675 mn Indians in cities by ’35, 1B in China: UN

United Nations, June 30: India’s urban population is estimated to stand at 675 million in 2035, the second highest behind China’s one billion, the UN has said in a report, noting that after the Covid-19 pandemic, the global urban population is back on track to grow by another 2.2 billion by 2050.

The United Nations-Habitat’s World Cities Report 2022, released on Wednesday, said that rapid urbanisation was only temporarily delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The global urban population is back on track to grow by another 2.2 billion people by 2050, it said.

India’s urban population is projected to be 67,54,56,000 in 2035, growing from 48,30,99,000 in 2020 to 54,27,43,000 in 2025 and 60,73,42,000 in 2030, the report said.

By 2035, the percentage of population in India at mid-year residing in urban area will be 43.2 per cent, it said.

China’s urban population in 2035 is projected at 1.05 billion while the urban population in Asia will be 2.99 billion in 2035 and that in South Asia 98,75,92,000, it said.

The report said that very big economies like China and India have a large share of the world’s population and their development trajectories have greatly influenced global inequality.

In Asia, in the last two decades, China and India experienced rapid economic growth and urbanisation, which led to a massive reduction in the number of people living in poverty, it said.

The report said that with existing urban populations continuing to grow naturally through rising birth rates, particularly in lower income countries, the urban population is forecast to grow from 56 per cent of the global total in 2021 to 68 per cent by 2050.

The large-scale flight from major cities in the early stages of the Covid19 pandemic to the perceived safety of the countryside or smaller towns was a short-term response that will not alter the course of global urbanisation.

Despite greater incidence of the virus in urban areas and the economic difficulties created by the pandemic, cities are once again serving as beacons of opportunity to people in search of employment, education and training or taking refuge from conflict, it said.

The report said that cities are here to stay, and the future of humanity is undoubtedly urban, though it says that levels of urbanisation are uneven, with growth slowing in many high-income countries.

Urbanisation remains a powerful 21st century mega-trend, said Maimunah Mohd Sharif, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN-Habitat, which produced the report. That entails numerous challenges, which were further exposed and exacerbated by the pandemic.