Abstract Urbanization is accelerating rapidly, particularly across Asia and Africa. Since 2000, sustainable urbanization (SU) has been central to global policy agendas, including the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda. This study employs bibliometric analysis and a systematic literature review (SLR) to examine 1913 Scopus-indexed articles (2000–2024), addressing three research questions: (1) What scholarship trends have emerged in sustainable urbanization and urban informality (SU-UI) research over the last 25 years? (2) Are manifestations of urban informality (UI) in the Global South (GS) primarily associated with limitations in formal planning frameworks or governance deficiencies, and what are the possible ways forward? (3) In the global agenda on sustainability, which primarily aims to address urbanization challenges, how much progress have cities around the world made towards SU? China, the United States, and the United Kingdom are the most productive contributors to SU-UI scholarship, while research on UI from India and on SU from China carries considerable global influence. Formal planning frameworks in many developing countries exhibit limited alignment with local urban dynamics, generating sociospatial challenges, while governance arrangements in the GS require reform to better reflect global sustainability objectives. Cities in the Global North (GN) demonstrate comparatively greater progress towards SU, offering context-dependent lessons for the GS. Future research directions include the investigation of southern-inclined planning and governance approaches, spatial analyses of SU-UI using geographic information systems methodologies, and how emerging post-2030 global development frameworks may reshape research priorities and policy directions in SU-UI.
Oyeleye et al. (2026) studied this question.