Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 4-3
PercentUrbanand Urban Annual Growth Rates (Selected Years)
%
%
Urban Annual
Region
Urban
Growth Rate
Country
(2009)
1980-85
1990-95
2000-05
2005-10
South Asia
Bangladesh
25
5.75
4.03
3.58
3.45
Bhutan
31
7.46
2.98
6.60
4.88
India
29
3.32
2.88
2.35
2.39
Maldives
35
5.71
2.63
5.62
5.29
Nepal
17
6.15
6.66
5.27
4.87
Pakistan
35
4.52
3.27
2.82
3.04
Sri Lanka
15
0.52
0.02
0.31
0.46
East Asia
China
51
4.47
3.79
3.10
2.70
Japan
86
1.01
0.79
0.36
0.24
North Korea
60
1.91
1.76
1.04
0.90
South Korea
82
4.05
2.13
0.75
0.62
Mongolia
60
3.86
1.43
0.93
1.22
Taiwan
78
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
n.d.
Southeast Asia
Brunei
72
3.66
3.59
2.94
2.63
Cambodia
15
10.46
5.56
4.84
4.64
Indonesia
43
5.36
4.54
4.04
3.34
Laos
27
4.66
5.18
6.02
5.56
Malaysia
68
4.36
4.82
3.69
3.00
Myanmar (Burma)
31
2.14
2.42
2.68
2.88
Philippines
63
5.21
4.31
3.45
3.04
Singapore
100
2.30
2.85
1.49
1.19
Thailand
36
2.60
1.73
1.49
1.66
Timor-Leste
22
4.88
4.33
6.75
5.00
Vietnam
28
2.51
3.89
3.13
3.08
evident. Even a relatively small but very poor country
such as Laos will add 3.2 million people to its cities while
it moves to a level of 43 percent urban in 2030.
Percentages of increase are falling in most cases.
Still, because of large existing populations even smaller
growth rates add huge numbers of people over time.
Urban growth rates are expected to rise in Bhutan,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand after 2010.
Population and the spatial extent of cities gain by
rural-urban migration (see the discussion below), natural
increase, and accretion of adjacent settlements. Some
urban populations have risen dramatically only because of
administrative boundary expansion. For example, T Tokyo
grew by 9 million people in the 1990s. However, 6 million
of these were added by a boundary expansion that
incorporated 87 surrounding towns and cities. Moreover,
forecasts of urban growth concentrating only in existing
giant cities have not always materialized. In the case of
China and India, it is medium-sized cities (500,000 peo-
ple) that are experiencing higher growth rates. Whatever
the case, variation in city definition makes comparative
urban data indicative rather than predictive.
Although cities grow significantly with incoming
migration streams, growth from natural increase (NI) is
even greater. These two factors are related as rural mi-
grants have more traditional ideas about preferred family
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