Urbanization in Africa is proceeding at an unprecedented rate and scale: in 2000, the urban population did not reach 250 million people, but by 2024 this figure was already 717 million people.

Source: Source:  www.oecd.org

The report is jointly prepared by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the African Development Bank (ADB), the Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC) and the Cities Alliance.

The study consists of five chapters: (1) Urban expansion in Africa; (2) Creating a space for African cities; 3 Urban governance for rapidly growing cities; 4) Financing African urban growth; 5) Urbanization in Africa from the perspective of policymakers and experts.

Generalization

By 2050, the urban population in Africa is expected to actually double and reach 1.4 billion people, compared to 0.7 billion in 2025. Such rapid growth will allow Africa to become the 2nd continent in the world by this indicator, passing forward only Asia with its astronomical 3.5 billion urban inhabitants. At the same time, Nigeria and Egypt will be among the ten world leaders in terms of population of cities with 250 million and 147 million citizens, respectively. By 2050, 2/3 of Africans will live in cities that will account for about 80% of the population growth.

Urban expansion in Africa: key

Urbanization in Africa is proceeding at an unprecedented rate and scale: in 2000, the urban population did not reach 250 million people, but by 2024 this figure was already 717 million people. Equally clearly, the scale of urbanization in Africa can be estimated by the emergence of new urban centers with a population of more than 10 thousand people. So, back in 1950 in Burkina Faso (Upper Volta) there were only 3 such settlements, while in 2020 this value was already 113 settlements.

Rice, that's it. 1: Projected expansion of Niamey (Niger) in 2020–2050

In terms of macro-regional proportions, significant imbalances will persist: West Africa will have 436 million urban residents by 2050, while East Africa will have 355 million and Central Africa will have 199 million.

Rice, that's it. 2: Top 10 countries with the highest urban population growth rate, 2020–2050

Rice, that's it. 3: Urban population growth in Africa, 2020–2050

Rice, that's it. 4: Level of urbanization in Africa, 2020–2050

The overall growth of the urban population will be accompanied not only by further expansion of existing cities, but also by the emergence of new ones: from 9,000 on the continent in 2020 to more than 11100 by 2050. At the same time, it is the megacities that will have the main share of growth. According to the study, if in 2020 in cities with a population of more than 1 million people in Africa lived 325 million people, by 2050 this value will be 836 million – an increase of almost 2.6 times.

Rice, that's it. 5: Urban agglomerations with a population of more than 1 million people in Africa in 2050