Asia has the most number of megacities, but the road to a sustainable urban future in the next phase of the urbanisation wave in the continent will go through small towns. National governments in the region will have to strengthen smaller cities to drive sustainable urbanisation and help achieve the objectives under the 2030 Agenda, New Urban Agenda and various other global agendas agreed upon by all nations
Urbanisation in Asia, its challenges and opportunities have been making headlines for years now, and it’s not hard to see why. The continent is home to some of the biggest and fastest-growing cities in the world, and most of them are powerful urban centres. Out of 34 megacities (with a population of over ten million) in the world, the continent has 22 megacities—Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, Mumbai, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Nagoya, Beijing, Karachi, Kolkata, Istanbul, Dhaka, Bengaluru, Manila, Osaka, Chongqing, Karachi, Lahore, Cairo, Bangkok, Hyderabad and Guangzhou. China has six megacities. India is a close second. The number is likely to grow further. In 2022 the Institute for Economics & Peace predicted that by 2050, 70 per cent of the world’s population would live in mega-cities, with an additional 14 cities being added to their 2022 list of megacities.
No doubt these cities are the economic powerhouses and wield power. They attract global talent and businesses. But these cities are facing several urbanisation challenges too. Many of these cities are full of slums in the absence of affordable housing facilities. It takes hours to cover a short distance during office hours in these cities. And there are issues in accessing various urban facilities for different communities and income groups. There is a problem of climate change, overcrowding, overstretching of municipal resources, and inequity in delivery and access to infrastructural facilities. All the problems may not exist everywhere, but many of these challenges are common.
As of 2021, over half of Asia’s population lived in urban areas, and that number is only going up. In fact, it’s estimated that by 2050, nearly two-thirds of the continent’s population will be city dwellers. That’s a lot of people living in relatively small areas. According to the United Nations, Asia is home to over 4.5 billion people, and that number is only expected to grow. In fact, by 2050, the continent’s population is projected to reach 5.3 billion. That’s a lot of people needing resources and services in already crowded cities. Increased demand for housing, transportation, and energy will further strain municipalities and urban authorities. The environmental impact of urbanisation will be another issue as cities grow and swell.
Small Cities Better Cities!
Urbanisation has brought with it plenty of benefits, too. Cities are hubs of innovation, creativity, and economic growth. But we can’t ignore the challenges that come along with all that growth. If we want to build sustainable, livable cities for future generations, we need to start taking these issues seriously in metropolises and arrest migration from rural areas to megacities and metropolises and divert them to smaller cities. The definition of small cities in Asia will be different from that in Europe or in the USA. A city with 5,00,000 people is considered small in this part of the world.
Just look at India. The nation has five megacities having a combined population of over 75 million. And about 50 plus metropolises and the total combined population is about 225 million. It means little over 40 per cent of India’s urban population, and about 16 per cent of 1.4 billion people live in metro and megacities. Eighty-four per cent of India’s population still lives in smaller towns (having a population of less than a million) and villages. India has over 400 cities with populations between 1,00,000 and one million. India has more than 4,000 cities with populations between 10,000 and 1,00,000. These towns are home to a significant portion of the country’s population. The situation is almost similar in other Asian Countries. Smaller cities collectively contain around 43 per cent of Japan’s total population. China may have about 100 million-plus cities, but it also has over 3,000 small towns. About 55 per cent of China’s population lives in cities with fewer than one million people.
Outside Asia, Germany has three cities of over one million population and 96 between 1,00,000 and 1 million. It has 1,518 cities between 10,000 and 1,00,000, which contain 42 per cent of the country’s population. In much smaller Hungary, only Budapest, the national capital, has a population of over 1 million, while there are seven cities between 1,00,000 and 1 million and 137 between 10,000 and 1,00,000, containing roughly one-third of that nation’s population. There are different methods to define the type of cities, but by whatever reasonable definition, small cities vastly outnumber large cities in almost every country and contain significant shares of each nation’s population.
There has been a focus on improving services in megacities and metropolises, but if the services and infrastructure in smaller cities and towns remain in poor health, the benefits of urbanisation will not reach everyone, and the quality of life in cities will deteriorate. People are also getting attracted to living in small cities, especially after the Pandemic.
Charm of living in a small city
Where do you want to live? In a city or in a village. There are positives and negatives to both, whether one is living in a city or in a rural community. Indeed, cities give you a variety of choices of facilities, improve quality of life, and provide people with enhanced access to economic opportunities and a fast-paced lifestyle. Villages give you access to a strong community, provide clean air and water and almost no traffic jams. On the flip side, village life slows you down in a good way. If someone gave you a choice, where would you live? It is a tricky question because it will certainly vary from one person to another. It will depend on the priorities of people at a given time. Small towns hover somewhere in the middle. The Pandemic changed a lot of things for urban residents, especially people who could work from home. They can live anywhere.
An article published in the Readers’ Digest describes choices people are making in America. The article says, “As a whole, people are leaving the city. Younger families, in particular, are looking for the opposite of what they used to want. It’s no longer about commutability; it’s about quality of life. They want to live where there’s a waterfront or beach or where they can go hiking.” To that end, many are considering leaving larger cities and escaping to places that offer wide, open spaces, fewer people, and a simple lifestyle.
Living in small cities offer a plethora of benefits, such as lower costs of living, a tight-knit community, easy access to nature, and a lower crime rate. Of course, there is an advantage of economy of scale in megacities, but technology is gradually changing it. Creating good models of small cities and towns can become a necessity in the coming years, and it can address several urban issues in one go.