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The Rise Of Third World Mega Cities

Posted by: Christian Madera

26 December 2006 - 2:00pm

As the population of western industrialized nations stabilizes, the world's largest and fastest growing cities will increasingly be located in poor, developing countries.

"Lagos, the capital of Nigeria, in west Africa, will be the world's fastest-growing mega-city over the decade to 2015, United Nations experts estimate.

Thirty years ago, Lagos had 2 million people. By 2015 it will have 16 million inhabitants.

It epitomises the rise of the Third World mega-cities, vast sprawling oceans of people living largely in makeshift shanty towns and slums.

In 1975, half of the world's 100 biggest cities were in the West, 15 of them in western Europe.

But the UN predicts that as Europe's population stabilises, by 2015 only four of its cities will be among the 100 biggest: Paris, London, Madrid and Barcelona. Not even Rome and Berlin would make the cut.

It is a startling transformation. Even between 1975 and 2005, Tokyo was the only city from the world's richest countries among the 10 cities that grew the most."

Full Story: Poor mega-cities to topple Rome, Berlin
Source: The Age, December 26, 2006
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New Yorker article on Lagos

Submitted by Urban Planning ... on Thu, 12/28/2006 - 14:09.

The November 13, 2006 New Yorker included an article by George Packer that painted a horrific, helilsh picture of life in Lagos, Nigeria.

A link to it can be found at:
www.urbanplanningoverlord.blogspot.com

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