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The Urban Poor: Disruption or Political Integration in Third World Cities?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 July 2011
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Most of the nations of Africa and Asia remain predominantly rural and agricultural. However, more than half the people in most Latin American countries are no longer rural, and a fifth to a third live in cities of 100,000 or more. In Asia and North Africa, Lebanon, the U.A.R., and the Philippines are also substantially urbanized, and Morocco, Syria, Turkey, South Korea, and Taiwan are not far behind. Moreover, virtually everywhere in the developing world, regardless of the extent of urbanization already achieved, cities are growing at rates of 5 to 8 percent annually. That is, they are doubling their populations every ten to fifteen years.
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References
1 In Brazil and Mexico between 1940 and 1950, population in cities of 100,000 or more grew at average annual rates of 5 and 6.7% respectively. During the 1950's, Santo Domingo grew 7.3% yearly; Panama City expanded at a rate of 7.9%. (United Nations Compendium of Social Statistics, 1963, Series K, No. 2, Table 7.) In the 1950's and early 1960's, Bogota's population rose an average of 6.8% a year; Cali's increased at 6.3%. Schultz, Paul T., Population and Labor Force Projections for Colombia, 1964-1974, mimeo. (Santa Monica, California, RAND, July 10, 1967), 12Google Scholar. Between 1941 and 1959 Caracas averaged a 7.4% annual growth. Herrick, Bruce, Urban Migration and Economic Development in Chile (Cambridge, Mass. 1965), 31Google Scholar. In some other parts of Asia and the Near East, rapid urban growth rivals that of Latin America. Korean cities have been growing rapidly since the 1950's: Seoul added 6.6% more people each year from 1960 to 1966. Turkey's population centers of 100,000 or more grew 6.7% a year from 1955 to 1960; Ankara averaged 6.8% annually from 1960 to 1965. (Estimated from figures in the United Nations Demographic Yearbook, 1962., 1963, 1967.) In South Asia, urban growth rates are generally lower. Delhi grew 5% a year from 1951 to 1961, but greater Bombay expanded at an annual rate of 3.9% during that period, and Calcutta's rate was 1.9%, reflecting in part the immense size already reached by these two giants. Davis, Kingsley in Turner, Roy, ed., India's Urban Future (Berkeley 1962), 10Google Scholar.
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