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7 billion people.....and counting

Whilst debate continues about the state of our planet, and amongst other things, how we are going to be able to feed and maintain the peoples of our globe, a UN Report tells us that we will "hit" 7 billion people on this planet some time later this year. Equally startling is where the people of the world are located.

"Somewhere in the world - Asia would be a good bet - a pregnant woman is carrying a baby destined to be the planet's seven billionth human being.

The historic baby is due to be born on October 31, the United Nations Population Division predicts.
Bookmakers have made Asia the hot favourite for the symbolic arrival, possibly for no better reason than that the sun rises in the east, giving Asian mothers a head start.

If they are right, another reasonable bet would be that the baby will grow up to be part of another historic demographic shift and live in a city.

By mid-2022 there will for the first time be more people living in Asia's urban areas than in the countryside as "a tidal wave of humanity" surges towards the cities in search of jobs and a better life, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says.

The statistics are startling:

About 1.1 billion people will migrate from the countryside into Asia's cities in less than 20 years, according to the ADB. That's about 137,000 every day.

India needs to build the equivalent of a city of Chicago every year to provide enough commercial and residential space for its migrants, according to McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) research.

One hundred new cities from China will join the list of the top 600 urban centres - which generate about 60 per cent of global GDP - in the next 15 years, says MGI."

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