Population, territory and sustainable development

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Chapter X
TRENDS, MUTATIONS AND CHALLENGES IN LARGE CITIES
A. METROPOLITANIZATION, A HALLMARK OF LATIN AMERICA
Latin America’s urbanization process has a defining characteristic: it has been a process of
“metropolitanization”. In other words, a heavy concentration of the population has come to reside in vast
cities, which can be classified as “large cities” (over 1 million inhabitants), “metropolises” (over 5 million
inhabitants), and “megalopolises” (over 10 million inhabitants). 1 Indeed, the region stands out globally for
its number of metropolises. According to the United Nations Population Division, in 2010 there were four
megalopolises in Latin America: São Paulo, Brazil; Mexico City, Mexico; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and
Río de Janeiro, Brazil. These were among the 14 largest megalopolises in the world, ranking third, fifth,
eleventh, and fourteenth, respectively, by number of inhabitants (United Nations, 2009). As shown in
table X.1, the region was home to 8.6% and 13.2% of the global total population and the global urban
population, respectively. In numerical terms, the region’s four megalopolises accounted for 28% of the 14
largest megalopolises in the world and 19% of the 21 megalopolises in the world in 2010.
Table X.1
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN: PERCENTAGES OF GLOBAL TOTAL,
RURAL AND URBAN POPULATION
Region Variable Number of inhabitants
World Total population (thousands) 6 895 889
World Urban population (thousands) 3 558 578
World Rural population (thousands) 3 337 311
Latin America and the Caribbean Total population (thousands) 590 082 8.6
Latin America and the Caribbean Urban population (thousands) 465 246 13.1
Latin America and the Caribbean Rural population (thousands) 124 836 3.7
Percentage
corresponding to
Latin America and
the Caribbean
Source: United Nations Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision, New York, Department of
Economic and Social Affairs, 2011; and World Urbanization Prospects: The 2011 Revision, New York, Department of
Economic and Social Affairs, 2012.
The population of the region’s large cities represents around one third of the region’s total
population, a rate matched only by North America, the most urban and metropolitanized region in the
world. Equally important is the fact that based on various economic and political indicators, the
concentration of productive activities and power in these large cities is even greater than their
demographic weight (see box X.1).
1
Latin America and the Caribbean, the most urbanized region in the developing world, is characterized by a high
degree of urban primacy: In 2000 in Latin America around 20% of the total population lived in cities with more than
five million inhabitants which is more than in other regions of the world (Jordán, Rehner and Samaniego, 2010).