Global Urban Population Growth

[monsoon]

The BBC has created a fascinating interactive map that shows where the urban areas of the planet are spreading.

[damus]

I'd like to see total land use vs open space in the past 50 years. The USA saw a lot of forests come back in the northeast when farms closed down, but now the trend seems to have reversed. How many people in these "urban areas" really live in suburbs or exurbs in the USA?

[monsoon]

What I find interesting about this map is that for the first time, in a very long time, New York City is not the largest city in the Western hemisphere. Mexico City is #1 now. And in 2015 NYC will be #3 behind Sau Paulo.

[PghUSA]

Check out SE Asia, Indian subcontinent and Tokyo, talk about a population explosion.

[dimebag1980]

What I find interesting about this map is that for the first time, in a very long time, New York City is not the largest city in the Western hemisphere. Mexico City is #1 now. And in 2015 NYC will be #3 behind Sau Paulo.

I found that to be interesting as well.

Very cool map, no doubt they spent a lot of time on not only data compilation, but making it so user-friendly.

I really didn't realize the world was so close to the 50% urban mark. Wow, that is mind-boggling.