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No. 96, 1997 Brockerhoff, Martin and Ellen Brennan. "The poverty of cities in the developing world," Policy Research Division Working Paper no. 96. New York: Population Council. Abstract Since the 1970s, mega-cities of the developing world have absorbed huge population increments and other large cities have experienced, on average, a doubling of population size. As a result, the longstanding presumption that living conditions in developing countries are superior for big city residents has come into question. This study uses indicators of children's status and recent level of infant mortality to compare well-being across cities of one million or more residents, smaller cities, and towns within developing regions. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the pronounced advantage of big city residents has declined steadily since the late 1970s as was no longer apparent by the early 1990s. In sub-Saharan Africa -villages of several hundred thousand people have emerged during this time, places in which basic human needs—adequate nutrition, early schooling, good child health—are less fulfilled than even in small towns. Unfavorable living conditions in giant cities of Latin America and the North Africa/Asia region, and in medium-sized cities of sub-Saharan Africa, are strongly related to the pace of growth of these cities since the late 1960s-early 1970s; where annual growth rates have exceeded five percent, conditions are relatively worse. In sum, findings suggest that population variables of size and growth are critical components of sustainable urban development. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
