Urbanization and Development Challenges

Sub-Saharan Africa is undergoing the fastest rate of urbanization of any world region. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs data placed the region's urban population share at roughly 43 percent as of the early 2020s, still below the global average of over 55 percent, but UN-Habitat and UN DESA projections consistently show this share rising toward 55 to 60 percent by around 2050, driven by a combination of natural urban population growth, continued rural-to-urban migration, and the reclassification of expanding settlements as urban. In absolute terms this represents one of the largest movements of people in human history, adding hundreds of millions of new urban residents to the continent within a few decades.