African Water Development Report 2006 - United Nations Economic ...

WATER AND URBANENVIRONMENTSAt the start of the 20th century, 95 per cent ofAfricans lived in rural areas. By the 1960s, Africawas still the least urbanized continent, withan urban population of 18.8 per cent. By 1996this number had doubled. At the present rate ofthe urban population growth in the continentat least 43 per cent of the people are expectedto live in urban areas by 2010 (United NationsPopulation Division 1997). Average annual urbangrowth rates in Africa from 1970 to 2000were the highest in the world, at more than 4 percent. Current estimates show that the number ofurban inhabitants in Africa increased by an averageannual rate of 4.3 per cent during the period1950-2005, resulting in the rise in populationfrom about 33 million to 353 million persons(Hassan Y, 2005).With the continuous growth of African citiesrapid urbanization is expected to continue fordecades (GEO-2000). Figure 7.1 gives ratesand projections on Africa’s urbanization from1950 to 2030. It shows that the share of the urbanpopulation in the total population increasedfrom 14.9 per cent in 1950 to 39.7 per cent in2005. Future prospects indicate these trends willcontinue unabated such that by the year 2025about half of the population in Africa will be livingin urban areas (UN 2004).The pace of urbanization in Africa is reflected inrapid annual incremental change in the numberof urban inhabitants from 1.6 million persons ayear in 1950 to 5.2 million in 1975 and 13 millionin 2005. It is expected to reach 16 millionpersons by 2015 and 19 million by 2025 (Fig.7.2). With this pace, approximately 395 millioninhabitants will be added to the urban areas inAfrica over the next 25 years.WATER AND URBAN ENVIRONMENTSFigure 7.1: Urban Population Growth by Subegion in AfricaSource: GEO-2000Table7. 1 Indicators of urbanization in Africa 1950-2030Urban population Rate of urbanization Urban growth rate1950 33 14.9 4.41975 103 25.2 4.52000 296 37.2 3.62005 353 39.8 3.42015 489 45.1 3.02030 748 53.5 2.7Taken from Hassan Y. (ECA) Source of data: World Urbanization Prospects: The 2003 Revision (UN 2004)165