SHAPING THE FUTURE HOW CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS CAN POWER HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

FIGURE 5.6:
Most people will continue to live in cities with
less than 5 million residents
TABLE 5.1:
Cities attract young and working-age people,
making them key to the demographic dividend
Based on UN DESA 2014a.
Based on UN DESA 2014a.
YOUTHFUL CITIES
FIGURE 5.7:
More developed countries have higher shares
of older rural residents
158
Cities are home to greater shares of youth and
adult working-age people than rural areas, 10
making them pivotal places to capture demographic
dividends. In 2015, youth and adult
working-age populations accounted for 67 percent
to 70 percent of city populations in East Asia,
South Asia and South-east Asia, compared to 60
percent to 62 percent of rural ones. Rural areas
are home to increasing shares of older people,
with shares increasing at a faster rate between
1980 and 2015 than in urban areas (Table 5.1).
Cities attract youth and young workers from
rural areas in part because of the diversity they
offer in terms of education, jobs and economic
opportunities.
While most rural areas now have more
people who are either children or elderly, the
split between young and old differs by stage of
development (Box 5.1 and Figure 5.7). In more
developed countries, the share of older residents
in rural areas is higher than that of low- and
medium-income countries. 11 In Japan, the share
of people above 60 in rural areas went up from
25 percent to 35 percent in just 15 years, from
Notes: Data are taken from household survey data included in
the United Nations Demographic Yearbook 2013. All surveys
are from 2009 to 2013 except Lao People’s Democratic
Republic (2005).
Source: Based on UN DESA 2014a.