The New Megacities of the Next Decade
Euromonitor International released a whitepaper earlier this year called Megacities: Developing Country Domination. It includes a forecast for cities that will reach the level of a “megacity” by 2030. A megacity is defined as a city with a population of over 10 million people.
Many businesses wondering if a target market is perhaps too saturated with other similar businesses, such as fast food franchises or service offerings, can feel good that the six cities this report mentions are growing quite well and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Cultural, political, economic and many other aspects will surely need to be considered for any business expansion. But as the saying goes, size matters.
The Next Megacities
The report names Chicago, USA; Bogotá, Colombia; Luanda, Angola; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Baghdad, Iraq and Chennai, India as the next cities destined to reach “megacity” status. With their inclusion into this classification, there will be 39 cities with this designation by 2030. According to the report, there are currently 33 megacities in the world.
Europe currently has four megacities and based on the report, Europe will not be adding any new megacities in the next decade. The Americas will add Chicago and Bogotá and will then have nine megacities, up from their seven current megacities. India already has four and will add one more with Chennai. Africa and the Middle East will add three to the three they currently have. Major growth in Africa is expected and this reinforces many other similar projections.
Among the current megacities expected to see a decline in population growth are Tokyo and Osaka. Today, Tokyo is the world’s most populous city, but Jakarta, Indonesia will become the world most populous city by 2030, with an expected population of almost 36 million people.
Summary
While there are six identified cities projected to become megacities in the next 10 to 11 years, there are many other cities also expanding and worth considering for your business expansion. Today, half of the world’s population live in or near cities. By 2030, the report forecasts this will increase to 60%.
Here is the link to the Euromonitor report and nice articles on the report by Visual Capitalist and World Economic Forum.
