The World Economic Forum (WEF), on Friday predicted that the population of Lagos, Nigeria, could grow to 24.2 million by 2030, based on the United Nation’s World Urbanisation Prospects, 2014 revision.

This would rank Nigeria’s commercial capital among the world’s 10 most populated cities by that date, behind fellow African city – Cairo, capital of Egypt which is projected to have a population of 24.5 million people, but ahead of Mexico City, Mexico’s 23.9 million population.

According to the report, Tokyo, capital of Japan, is billed to become the world’s most populated with 37.2 million people, despite its limited landmass that has ensured very economic use of every available space and following which underground trains are usual, just like high-rise buildings.

“With the exception of Tokyo, the top 10 is dominated by cities in emerging and developing economies. A remarkable change from 1950, as the following chart shows,” the report noted.

Delhi, India is billed to come after Tokyo with its projected population of 36.1 million people, from 3.5 million in 46 years ago in 1970; while Mumhai, another Indian city, with its 27.8 million population comes the 30.8 million people projected for Shanghai, China.

Beijing, China follows Mumbai with 27.7 million people, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 27.4 million; followed by Karachi, Pakistan with a projected population of 24.8 million.

The report recalls that 65 years ago in 1950, Tokyo was the second most populous city with 11.3 million people, behind New York – Newark in the U.S, which was inhabited by 12.4 million people; while London could boast of 8.4 million population.

The 1950 data also had Osaka, another city in Japan, which had seven million people; ahead of Paris, 6.3 million; Moscow, Russia, 5.4 million; Buenos Aires, Argentina, 5.1 million; Chicago, also in the U.S., 5.0 million; Kolkata, India, 4.5 million; and Shanghai, China, 4.3 million.

By 2030, the report continued, with 37 million inhabitants, Tokyo could well make it the equivalent of the world’s 55th biggest country

“The world’s urban population has grown rapidly since 1950, increasing from less than 750 million to 3.9 billion in 2014. A further 2.5 billion are expected to be added to this by the middle of the century.”

The bulk of this growth is expected to come from Asia and Africa, two regions that are urbanising more rapidly than others, according to the report. (Independent)

•Photo shows Lagos Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.

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