Thursday June 07, 2007

World population becomes more urban than rural : 23 May 2007

slashdot.org -> news.ncsu.edu :

There's no big countdown billboard or sign in Times Square to denote it, but Wednesday, May 23, 2007, represents a major demographic shift, according to scientists from North Carolina State University and the University of Georgia: For the first time in human history, the earth's population will be more urban than rural.

Working with United Nations estimates that predict the world will be 51.3% urban by 2010, the researchers projected the May 23, 2007, transition day based on the average daily rural and urban population increases from 2005 to 2010. On that day, a predicted global urban population of 3,303,992,253 will exceed that of 3,303,866,404 rural people.

Though the date is highly symbolic, the researchers – Dr. Ron Wimberley, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at NC State; Dr. Libby Morris, director of the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia; and Dr. Gregory Fulkerson, a sociologist at NC State – advise avoiding the urge to interpret this demographic transition to mean that the urban population has greater importance than the rural. Urban and rural populations, they say, rely heavily on each other.

Wimberley says that May 23, 2007, marks a "mayday" call for all concerned citizens of the world. "So far, cities are getting whatever resource needs that can be had from rural areas," he said. "But given global rural impoverishment, the rural-urban question for the future is not just what rural people and places can do for the world's new urban majority. Rather, what can the urban majority do for poor rural people and the resources upon which cities depend for existence? The sustainable future of the new urban world may well depend upon the answer."

(2007-06-07 11:01:56 SGT) [Env] Permalink

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