It is said that current trends in mass urbanization sees 1.4 million people migrating into cities each week. According to futurist Richard Saul Wurman, founder of the TED Conference and 19 20 21.org that studies ‘the effect of mass urbanization on the planet,’ “While some say the world is flat, supercities are rising – vast, intensely urban hubs will radically redefine the world’s future macroeconomic and cultural landscape. Most of the world’s population right now lives and works in cities. Many more will. It’s critical to gain a truer understanding of what’s happening: the rise of supercities is the defining megatrend of the 21st century.”

Extrapolating on the current trends in massive urbanization on the planet, ‘the world’s urban population will double every 38 years. The UN forecasts that today’s urban population of 3.2 billion will rise to nearly 5 billion by 2030, when three out of five people will live in cities. By 2050 two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities, up from about 50% right now.’

The scientific prediction is mind-boggling when one considers that ‘in 1800 only 3% of the world’s population lived in cities; 47% by the end of the twentieth century.’ By ‘1950, there were 83 cities with populations exceeding one million; by 2007, this had risen to 468 urban areas of more than one million.’

Image: NASA

Via The Daily Galaxy