NEW DELHI: At present, India is home to five mega cities, with over 10
million population, but by 2030 this number will go up to seven. Delhi
will continue to be the second most populous city in the world till
2030, adding a staggering 9.6 million people to its population — the
most in any mega city.

The facts have been revealed in the 2016 World Cities Report issued by the UN’s department of economic and social affairs.

The report has not relied on the administrative boundaries of cities
but has, instead, preferred to use the concept of “urban agglomeration”
which is the “the contiguous urban area, or built-up area”. For example,
in the case of Delhi urban agglomeration, the satellite cities of
Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad and Gurgaon are included. Such inclusion
makes sense as people in these contiguous areas are economically and
socially integrated with the main city.

Around the world, about 500 million people live in 31 such mega
cities. That’s about 6.8% of the world’s population or 12% of the
world’s urban population. The report calculates that by 2030, the number
of mega cities will increase to 41 and their population to about 730
million or 8.7% of the world’s population.

Other Indian cities figuring in 2016’s mega cities list are Mumbai,
Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai. By 2030, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad will
join them, as their respective populations would cross 10 million.

The UN report shows that only a minority of urban dwellers actually
live in mega cities. Nearly 21% of the world’s population stays in
cities of population between 500,000 to 10 million, while an even bigger
share of 26.8% resides in smaller cities and towns with a population of
less than 500,000.

By 2030, the world’s population will decisively shift to urban living
with 60% of the estimated population living in cities, big or small.
Currently, about 54% of the world’s population is urban.