Megacities €“ a term first coined by the United Nations to describe cities with at least 10 million inhabitants €“ are becoming increasingly common. According to UN estimates, the earth will soon be "teeming" with these urban sprawls.

By 2030, the UN forecasts, 3 out of 5 people will live in cities. For the first time in human history, more people will live in urban areas rather than rural.

Past At 6.5 million, London was the world\'s largest city in 1900. Nearly all of the largest cities at that point were in Europe or America.

Tokyo, then the world\'s seventh-largest city with 1.5 million people, was the only exception.

The World\'s Ten Largest Cities (c. 1900)

Source: Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census by Tertius Chandler.

Future At 35.2 million, Tokyo is the world\'s largest city today. By 2015, it is slated to grow to 36.3 million.

Tokyo's population growth rate is slowing, however, leaving the "future" to cities like Mumbai and Shanghai.

According to the Far Eastern Review, Asia will have at least 10 hypercities (cities with a population greater than 20 million) by 2025.

These include Jakarta (Indonesia), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Karachi (Pakistan), Shanghai, (China), and Bombay (India).

China Three hundred and twenty-five million more people will be living in China's cities by 2025. Estimates put the total urban population of China at 926 million by 2025; topping 1 billion by 2030.

Within two decades, forecasters predict, two-thirds of China's population will be living in cities. This massive migration means that Chinese cities such as Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, and Wuhan, will surpass 10 million people, ranking them with Beijing and Shanghai among China's megacities.

Megacities of the Future

Source : http://www.galtglobalreview.com