Half the World’s People to Live in Cities by 2007

By 2007, for the first time in history, most of the world’s population will live in cities, U.N. demographers said Wednesday.

They said that 48% of the world’s population lived in urban areas in 2003 and the percentage was “expected to exceed the 50% mark by 2007.” Global urban populations would grow at an annual average rate of 1.8% and double that rate in 38 years, according to the U.N. Population Division report, “World Urbanization Prospects: The 2003 Revision.” Tokyo, the world’s most populous city with 35 million, was projected to still be the largest in 2015 with 36 million people.