moodboard/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — More than half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas, according to a United Nations survey.
The survey, released Thursday by the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs found that 54 percent of the world’s population resides in urban areas. In 1950, that figure was at just 30 percent. The U.N. says that by 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population is projected to be urban.
North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe are home to the most urban residents, the survey showed, with over 70 percent of residents in each region living in urban areas.
Meanwhile, the rural population of the world, which has continued growing — albeit slowly — since 1950, is expected to reach its peak of an estimated 3.4 billion within the coming years before declining to 3.2 billion by 2050. Africa and Asia represent about 90 percent of the world’s rural population, with India and China being home to over 1.4 billion rural residents.
The authors of the survey said that it is often cheaper, and less environmentally challenging to provide public transportation, housing, utilities and sanitation to a densely populated urban area than a dispersed rural population.
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