Population and Urbanization in Latin America

Latin America and the Caribbean underwent one of the most rapid urban transitions of any world region in the 20th century: the region's urban population share rose from roughly 41 percent in 1950 to approximately 81 percent by the early 2020s, according to United Nations Population Division estimates, making it more urbanized today than Europe by some measures and comparable to North America. This transition was driven by rural-to-urban migration linked to agricultural mechanization, land concentration, and the search for industrial and service-sector employment, concentrated especially between the 1950s and 1980s as countries such as Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina pursued import-substitution industrialization policies that drew labor toward manufacturing centers in major cities.