Something to celebrate in 2007

It looks certain that some time in the coming year the number of city-dwellers will exceed the number of those who live in the countryside. It will be the first time in human history that most of the world’s population will be urban.

According to an article in today’s Independent a report from the Worldwatch Institute in January and one from the UN Population Fund, due out in the summer, will discuss this trend. This follows an earlier report published by the United Nations in 2006 on the same subject.

No doubt many critics will condemn this development as creating a “planet of slums” (to use Mike Davis’s phrase). But in reality the trend to greater urbanisation is closely related to economic development. People tend to move to the cities as they will enjoy a better life there than living an isolated existence in rural poverty.