Population, territory and sustainable development

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In Ecuador, the number of cities with 20,000 or more inhabitants rose from 46 to 55, mostly in
the category of 20,000 to 100,000 inhabitants (see table IX.6). The number of cities with one million or
more inhabitants (including Guayaquil and Quito) has not risen since 1990. While the number of
inhabitants in this category has risen in absolute terms and accounts for about 51% of the population of
cities with 20,000 inhabitants or more, population growth in 2000-2010 was slower than during the
previous period (see table IX.5).
Table IX.5
ECUADOR: NUMBER OF CITIES BY POPULATION CATEGORY, 1950-2010
Number of cities
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
1,000,000 or more 0 0 0 1 2 2 2
500,000 to 999,999 0 1 2 1 0 0 0
100,000 to 499,999 2 1 1 5 6 11 12
50,000 to 99,999 0 2 7 7 8 6 9
20,000 to 49,999 3 9 10 9 16 27 32
Total 20,000 and more 5 13 20 23 32 46 55
Population
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
1,000,000 or more 1 250 367 2 691 650 3 559 288 4 177 673
500,000 to 999,999 522 958 1 447 851 866 472
100,000 to 499,999 474 456 354 746 104 470 561 347 836 208 1 776 519 2 308 313
50,000 to 99,999 113 774 442 751 504 163 652 299 440 700 608 955
20,000 to 49,999 101 125 271 284 307 872 278 012 472 403 828 310 1 053 873
Total 20,000 and more 575 581 1 262 762 2 302 944 3 460 361 4 652 560 6 604 817 8 148 814
Growth rate
(per 100 inhabitants)
1950-1960 1960-1970 1970-1980 1980-1990 1990-2000 2000-2010 1950-2010
1,000,000 or more 9,6 2,5 1,8
500,000 to 999,999 8,8 -6,1
100,000 to 499,999 -2,4 -10,6 19,8 5,0 6,8 2,9 2,6
50,000 to 99,999 11,8 1,5 3,2 -3,6 3,6
20,000 to 49,999 8,2 1,1 -1,2 6,6 5,1 2,7 3,9
Total 20,000 and more 6,5 5,2 4,8 3,7 3,2 2,3 4,4
Source: Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Centre (CELADE) - Population Division of ECLAC, on the basis of
information from Spatial distribution and urbanization in Latin America and the Caribbean (DEPUALC) database, 2012.