Visualizing Global Urban Growth Through 2030

CityLab writer Tanvi Misra has high praise for an interactive map of worldwide urban growth created by urban geographer Duncan Smith.

Misra writes, "In its 2014 World Urbanization Prospects report, the UN tracked the populations of major cities from 1950 to 2014, then predicted how these populations would grow (or shrink) up to the year 2030. Using these data, Smith represented each city on his map with a dark blue core, the size of which is proportional to the city's 1950 population. The concentric circles around that core, in lighter blue, vary according to the city's population in 1990, 2015, and 2030."

The result, which is quite pretty to look at, also highlights urbanization's dramatic shift from West to East. Urban China and India, as well as several African cities, stand out as new powerhouses come 2030.