The new urban world 2050: perspectives, prospects and problems

World trends about the problems and prospects of cities are discussed in the context of the present time and up to the year 2050. In 2010, urbanization grew to encompass about 52 per cent of the world's population, and the United Nations projects the percentage of the population living in cities to increase to about 67 per cent by 2050. The distribution of cities within each nation is changing as are the spatial structures of population and employment locations within cities. Government organizational structures are also evolving in many areas of the world. As the likelihood of natural disasters increases over time and resource constraints become more binding, cities of the future will see themselves striving for a triumvirate of goals ‘efficiency, sustainability and resiliency’.