Where Data Tells the Story
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Each year, the first Monday of October marks World Habitat Day, which aims to reflect on the state of towns and cities, and on the right of all to adequate shelter. The share of people living in urban areas is expected to continue growing in the coming decades : according to United Nations estimates, 57% of the world's population now lives in cities, but this figure could rise to 68% by 2050, driven by continued urbanisation in Asia and Africa. However, in these regions of the world, urban growth is often forced and unplanned, with inadequate or failing infrastructure. As a result, much of the urban expansion takes place in slums, areas of self-built, unsanitary housing where extreme poverty is rife.
Over the past 20 years, the United Nations estimates that the number of people living in slums has risen from 895 million to 1.1 billion. The regions where city dwellers are most exposed to these harmful living conditions are sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where it is estimated that around 50% of the urban population lived in slums in 2022 (compared to 23% globally). As our map shows, this rate rises to more than two out of three city dwellers in countries such as South Sudan (94.2%), Mali (92.5%) or Afghanistan (71.6%). The share of the urban population living in slums was higher than 50% in Pakistan and Laos. In India, around 41.5% of the urban population lived in slums in 2022, down from 55% since 2002.