Infographic: Fastest Growing African Cities

The Urban Intelligence Unit (UIU) is the research wing of Future Cape Town, a non-profit think tank creating a space for debate, awareness and action about the future of cities. Our mission is to conduct high-quality, innovative, and trans-disciplinary research, and to disseminate knowledge and foster knowledge sharing and to review policy matters in the area of urbanism.

This is the second in a series of infographics presented by the UIU team on urban issues in Africa and the rest of the world.

At 3.9% per year (World Bank), Africa’s urban population growth rate is the highest in the world. In 2010 47 cities in Africa had a populations of over one million and this is continuing to grow. With new economic centres developing people are moving to cities for better lives and job opportunities.

The cities with the highest population, such as Lagos (10.58 million) and Cairo (11 million) are in fact not the fastest growing cities, instead cities such as Abuja, Ouagadougou and Lomé will have a population increase of more than 50% by 2050. The largest cities are estimated to attain lower percentages of urban population growth, while the cities with a population of less that 1 million in 2005 are increasing rapidly.

By 2030 Africa’s urban population is estimated to increase to nearly 50%. What does this mean for Africa and how will governments manage this change?

Download the high resolution infographic here.

The first in our series of infographics may be found here.