World’s Biggest Cities Merging Into ‘Mega-Regions’

A new UN report charts the growth of mega-regions – clusters of cities that may stretch across countries and include more than 100 million people. With half the world now dwelling in cities and the pace of urbanization only expected to increase, mega-regions may displace countries to become the principal locii of economic growth. Already, mega-regions account for outsized percentages of global economic activity and technological innovation, with the 40 largest, containing 18 percent of the world's population, generating 66 percent of all economic activity and 85 percent of scientific innovation. Yet such growth, and the massive movement of people it attracts, saddles mega-regions with deep problems: urban sprawl, growing slums, and rising income inequality that threaten to make cities more dysfunctional and inefficient, as well as cauldrons of social and political unrest. Despite the perils inherent in mega-regions, perhaps the most positive prognostication is that with more and more people calling them home, the desire to improve the quality of life may effect change. – YaleGlobal