China and India are two of the most rapidly urbanizing areas of the world. In a fantastically interesting article over at Foreign Policy, Richard Hobbs breaks down the numbers on how big cities will be in both countries by 2030.
Hobbs writes:
In just two decades, China will have a whopping 44 urban areas boasting populations larger than 4 million. India will have 11 such cities. Who will live there? In China, the answer is simple: migrants from rural areas. Growth in India's cities, by contrast, will mainly be organic. The country's population is also much younger than China's. A mere 16 percent of India's population will be over 55 in 20 years, while 28 percent of China's will be . . . It's the stuff of dreams for developers and construction companies. If current trends hold, China will need 40 billion square meters of combined residential and commercial floor space over the next 20 years — equivalent to adding one New York every two years. India, on the other hand, needs to start building between 700 million and 900 million square meters of combined residential and commercial space each year — equivalent to adding more than two Mumbais or one Chicago each year . . . Urban growth will come with a high price tag — a whopping $35-$40 trillion in China and $2.2 trillion in India over the coming two decades.
Find out more about the energy that these cities will consume, the jobs they'll create, and what it will be like to like in them, via Foreign Policy.