Urban population growth Africa 300 percent between 2010 and 2050

The African urban population is forecast by the UN to triple in just 40 years time.

According to ‘The State of African Cities 2010’ by UN Habitat Lagos will be the biggest African city from 2015 onwards. In five years time the population of the Nigerian capital will increase to 12.4 million inhabitants. Also in West Africa Kano, Ouagadougou and Abidjan quickly increase their multi million inhabitants. By 2020 Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo will have 12.8 million inhabitants and Cairo 12.5. For Kinshasa that is a population growth of 46 percent over the next 10 years.

By 2050 the African population is expected to reach 1.23 billion people. Of that population in 2050 60 percent will live in the cities. World population growth is driven by high birth rates in Africa and the Islamic world – and to a lesser extent in the rest of Asia and Latin America.