Lump Together and Like It

The statistics on urbanization worldwide are startling – in the past 30 years alone, urban populations have gone from 1.6 to 3.3 billion people, while the next 30 years project additional growth of 2 billion people. The scale and speed of urbanization today is unprecedented in history, with projections of 2 billion slum-dwellers in 2030. Developing countries like Egypt, with more than 18 million people crowding in Cairo, promote policies that exhibit anxiety over high-density cities. However, the most recent World Development report published by the World Bank questions this pessimistic point of view, instead arguing that rapid urbanization is a product of large cities' "vast economic advantages." The vibrant city economy is possible, according to the report, because the cost of transport has decreased over time. Lower transport costs lead to hubs of manufacturing and services made possible by city infrastructure. Ultimately, real costs of urbanization are experienced by countries that don't have urban centers, as the report explains "the key to development is to link up flagging and fast-growing regions," however "lumpy" it may be. Large numbers of people can better solve problems together as a group rather than all spread apart. – YaleGlobal