The world is urbanizing fast — the window to get it right is narrowing Abhas JhaDivyanshi Wadhwa August 06, 2026 This page in: English

https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/opendata/the-world-is-urbanizing-fast---the-window-to-get-it-right-is-nar The most important urban decisions of this century are being made right now, mostly in cities you've never heard of. Today, 4.7 billion people, about 58 percent of the world's population, live in urban areas. By 2050, that share will cross 70 percent. The bulk of that growth won't happen in megacities. The next chapter of urbanization will be defined by the rapid spread of smaller cities across the globe, many of them in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where planning capacity is weakest and fiscal resources are thinnest. That combination should concentrate minds.