From 'Managing Asian Cities' published by the Asian Development Bank, June 2008. 'Urban populations have never grown as fast as they are growing today. In 1950, the Asia and Pacific region was predominantly rural, with only 17% or 232.0 million of its 1.4 billion people living in towns or cities. The United Nations (UN) estimates that by 2030, 55% of 4.9
billion Asians, or 2.7 billion people, will live in urban areas. Starting in about 2015, all of the region’s population increase will effectively occur in urban areas. By mid-2022, the urban
population will surpass that of rural areas.There will be over 1.1 billion more urban residents in 2030 than there were in 2005. The urban population will grow by an annual average of 44.0 million people over the next 25 years.In 2005, almost 50% of the urban population lived in cities with less than 0.5 million people, while 39% were in those with more than 1.0 million. Similar proportions are projectedfor 2015. The share of the megacities is projected to remain steady at about 10%...'