Let urbanization add to your future returns

Article Excerpt

The world’s urban population has seen rapid growth, from 751 million in 1950 to 4.2 billion in 2018. Currently, 55% of people now live in cities. According to United Nations estimates, the proportion of people living in urban areas will increase to 68% by 2050; with another 2.5 billion people moving from rural to urban areas over the next 30 years. By 2030, the world is expected to have 43 megacities, or urban centres with more than 10 million inhabitants. Most of them will be in developing countries. At the other end of the spectrum, some of the fastest-growing urban settlements are cities with fewer than 1 million inhabitants, many of them located in Asia and Africa. At the same time, estimates are that $94 trillion U.S. in infrastructure investments will be needed by 2040 to support economic growth as the world population rises and more people move to urban areas. Over the past few decades, China has led the way with the…