Global warming is driving people to cities: the proportion of urban populations in poor countries in hot regions has in some cases tripled since 1960.
In the long run, climate change will cause more people to move from rural areas to cities. This is demonstrated by a study by the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), for which scientists evaluated data from 118 countries between 1960 and 2016. During this period, the temperature increased by an average of one degree Celsius, while the percentage of the population living in cities has almost doubled: from 33 to 59%.
Researchers observe the greatest urban growth in poor countries that are located in hot regions and are also heavily dependent on agriculture. Here the percentage of the urban population has in some cases tripled, in Nigeria, for example, from 15.4% to 48.7%. In nearly every country in sub-Saharan Africa, but also in developing countries in Latin America and Asia, researchers are finding that economic disadvantages such as the formation of slums or overloaded infrastructure outweigh the benefits of urbanization such as local concentration of labor and reduction of transport costs. The rural exodus could result in stronger international migration to wealthier countries, as cities are important hubs for this.
