As the sent people of God, we are uniquely positioned to understand, prepare for and deal with major trends that affect our world. For the first time in human history, the majority of the world's population lives in cities. Urbanization is not just a trend - it is a fact.

In the 20th century, it was a given in Latin America that if all your country's roads did not lead to one major city, then you could not consider your country to be a "real" country. New York has a bigger economy than Russia or Brazil. Five cities in the world today generate 85% of the world's patents.

From an article on population and an urbanizing world:

Managing urban population change will be one of the world's most important challenges in the next few decades. In less developed countries, where 80 percent of the world's population resides, central issues will be how to cope with an unprecedented increase in the number of people living in urban areas and the growing concentration of these urbanites in large cities with millions of residents. In more developed countries such as the United States, the urban future will involve dealing with complex changes in the composition of urban populations while also containing urban sprawl beyond suburbs into what remains of the countryside.

In Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the unprecedented population growth that characterized much of the 20th century has evolved into unparalleled urban growth. The United Nations (UN) projects that world population will expand from 6.1 billion to 7.8 billion between 2000 and 2025 — 90 percent of this growth will occur in urban areas of less developed countries.1 By 2020, a majority of the population of less developed countries will live in urban areas. [ Read More ]