Population Reports' Q&As

Meeting the Urban Challenge

The Urban Poor

Do most poor people in developing countries live in rural or urban areas?

Most poor people in developing countries live in rural areas (140). But urban poverty is widespread, too, and it is growing. The World Bank estimates that, worldwide, 30% of poor people live in urban areas. By 2020 the proportion is projected to reach 40%, and by 2035 half of the world's poor people are projected to live in urban areas (96). In 1988 the World Bank estimated conservatively that some 330 million urban poor in the developing world were living on less than US$1 a day (151). In 2000 the estimate had increased to 495 million (153). In over half of developing countries with data on poverty, as defined by the countries themselves, at least one urban resident in every five lives below the national poverty line (157).

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