11 / 72
11
There are 1 billion people in Africa of whom 400 million live in urban areas. With 40 per
cent of the population living in urban areas, Africa is the least urbanised region in the
world (UN-HABITAT 2010).
As centres of economic activity, innovation and development,
Africa’s urban areas are expanding rapidly, growing at a world
annual fastest rate of 3.5 per cent (UNEP 2006). At this growth
rate the urban population doubled from 205 million in 1990 to
Figure 1:
Africa’s urban centres are currently growing at an annual rate that is the fastest compared to other regions. The urban
expansion is expected to continue, with cities like Abuja and Ouagadougou expecting very high growth in the next decade, while
Cairo, Africa’s largest city, is projected to see a comparatively lower growth rate.
400 million in 2010, and is projected to triple to 1.23 billion by
2050 (UN Population revision 2009). It is expected that by 2030
the proportion of people living in Africa’s urban areas will be 50
per cent and reach 60 per cent by 2050 (UN-HABITAT 2010).
Source: UNDESA,
The World Urbanisation Prospects, The 2009 Revision
, 2010.
Conakry
Lomé
Benin
City
Ibadan
Ogbomosho
Kaduna
Abuja
Lagos
Dakar
Bamako
Abidjan
Accra
Cape Town
Ekurhuleni
Durban
Antananarivo
Dar es
Salaam
Addis Ababa
Fes
Casablanca
Douala
Harare
Alexandria
Tripoli
Kano
Cairo
Ouagadougou
Niamey
Kumasi
Luanda
Johannesburg
Pretoria
Port Elizabeth
Maputo
Mogadishu
Mombasa
Nairobi
Khartoum
Yaoundé
Kampala
Lubumbashi
Kinshasa
Brazaville
Mbuji-Mayi
Algiers
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Current and projected urban population
growth for selected cities for the periods
1995-2010 and 2010-2025
Percentage
1995-2010
2010-2025
Urban growth rate in Africa
URBANISATION – WATER –
ECOSYSTEMS NEXUS