Population, territory and sustainable development

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almost every indicator, suggesting that they are unlikely to attract migrants compared with other segments
in the system of cities. Medium-sized cities, especially those with 100,000 to 999,999 inhabitants, post
higher living standards, with more years of schooling, less unemployment and, along with large cities,
better service coverage. This combination of factors suggests that medium-sized cities may be particularly
attractive for migrants. In contrast, small cities seem to have little draw. Large cities, meanwhile, show
mixed conditions, making it difficult to predict how much of a draw they may have.
So far, the analysis has used the universe of cities (1,735) available in the DEPUALC database.
These aggregated averages mask diverse national realities, however, and once again skew towards Brazil
and Mexico because they have so many cities. Therefore, any particular relationship between city size and
standard of living in these countries will markedly influence the relationship for the whole region.
Figure IX.4
LATIN AMERICA (1,735 CITIES): EDUCATION INDICATORS BY CITY POPULATION SIZE,
CENSUSES FROM THE 2000s
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Average years
of schooling
Net primary school
enrolment ratio
Primary school
completion rate
Literacy rate for
15-24 year olds
One million or more 500,000 to 999,999 100,000 to 499,999
50,000 to 99,999 20,000 to 49,999
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, 2009.
Figure IX.7 shows indicators for several countries; there is a strong positive relationship between
city size and living standards, particularly for education (average years of schooling, youth literacy rate,
primary education coverage) and availability of information and communication technologies (telephone,
mobile telephone, computer and Internet). In two countries, the relationship between city population size
and access to basic services (drinking water, sanitation and electricity) is not as direct, since there are no
obvious differences between categories. Panama is an interesting case in that basic service coverage is
slightly better in medium-sized cities than in Panama City. In most of the countries, however, there is a
positive relationship between city size and service coverage.