Outside the Large Cities; the demographic importance of small urban centres and large villages in Africa, Asia and Latin America

This paper examines the proportion of national populations living in “large villages” and in urban centres in different population size categories, drawing on recent census data for some 70 nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. One-quarter of the world’s population (and half its urban population) lives in urban centres with fewer than half a million inhabitants. Some nations have more than half their national populations living in urban centres with fewer than half a million inhabitants – for example, Venezuela, Chile and Brazil. And many more have more than one-third – for instance, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Guatemala, Iran, Malaysia and Turkey. Of the 1.5 billion people living in these “small urban centres” worldwide, nearly three-quarters live in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Several hundred million more live in these same regions in “large villages” that have urban characteristics and that could be classified as urban centres. These “small urban centres” and “large villages” are likely to absorb a large part of the growth in the world’s population up to 2025 and beyond.

Tables in this report show the proportion of national populations living in rural areas and in urban centres in the following population size categories: under 20,000; 20,000–49,999; 50,000–199,999; 200,000–499,999; 0.5–1.99 million; 2–4.99 million; and 5 million plus. Many nations have more than one-fifth of their population living in urban centres with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants. Many others have more than 10 per cent of their population living in urban centres with between 50,000 and 199,999 inhabitants. For large-population nations, urban centres of between 50,000 and 199,999 inhabitants can also be very numerous – for instance, there are more than 750 in China (according to 1990 census data), more than 600 in India (2001), more than 300 in Brazil (2000), 147 in Indonesia (1990) and 100 in Turkey (2000). Urban centres of this size category also contain significant proportions of the population in most high-income nations.

Urban centres with between 200,000 and 499,999 inhabitants have considerable importance in many relatively urbanized large-population nations – for instance, they comprise more than 10 per cent of the national population in Chile, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, South Korea and Argentina. Large-population nations can have many urban centres in this size category – for example, China has 125 (1990), India has 100 (2001), Brazil has 70 (2000), Mexico has 26 (2001), Indonesia has 25 (1990) and the Philippines has 24 (2000).

These statistics highlight the demographic importance of small urban centres and large villages in virtually all nations. Collectively, such urban centres also have considerable economic, social or political importance within almost all nations. In many nations, they contain a sizeable part of all economic activities and include almost all the service centres and local government centres for rural populations and for agriculture. Most small urban centres exhibit a mix of urban and rural characteristics. However, most rural specialists choose not to recognize the importance of small urban centres within “rural development”, and most urban specialists fail to recognize the importance of prosperous agriculture and a prosperous agricultural population for urban development. Recognition of the demographic, economic, social and political importance of small urban centres might help to shift such biases.