Most urban dwellers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America (and in other regions) live in urban areas with fewer than one million inhabitants many live in small market towns or administrative centres with under 50 000. Most of the urban population lives outside large cities These statistics give the impression of rapid urbanisation that is primarily focused on large cities. In 1800, the average size of the world's 100 largest cities was fewer than 200 000 inhabitants but now it is over 5 million. There were 12 mega-cities by 1990 (the latest year for which there are relatively accurate statistics as data for 2000 censuses are not available or censuses are scheduled for 2001) seven were in Asia, three in Latin America, and two in the United States. The first city to reach this size was New York in around 1940. “Mega-cities,” with ten or more million inhabitants are a new phenomenon. Brasilia, the federal capital of Brazil, did not exist in 1950 and now has more than 2 million inhabitants. Most of these million cities are in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and many have populations that have grown more than tenfold since 1950. By 1950, there were 80 today there are over 300. Just two centuries ago, there were only two “million cities” worldwide (that is, cities with one million or more inhabitants)-London and Beijing (Peking). Rapid urban growth has also brought a huge increase in the number of large cities, including many that have reached sizes that are historically unprecedented. Since 1950, the urban population of these regions has grown more than fivefold. More than two thirds of the world's urban population is now in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
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