DIGITAL STRATEGY
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Aof human history has been defined – more than war , revolution and technological invention – by the movement and migration of populations . From the first homo sapiens sapiens to leave Africa in the mists of prehistory , to the influx of Europeans to the Americas , Indians to Pakistan following the fall of the Raj , the Zionist movement , and the exodus of more than a million Vietnamese citizens following the fall of Saigon . Not all migrations are defined by wars or their ends , however . The past century has been defined by sustained migration on an intense scale , driven by an arguably more powerful force : urbanisation .
In 1950 , just over 751mn people lived in cities . Today , the global urban population exceeds 4.2bn . The United Nations predicts that the proportion of humanity living in and around cities will reach as high as 68 % by 2050 , adding a further 2.5bn people to urban environments around the globe as more than 1.5mn people move and are born into cities every day . Our cities are getting bigger , more crowded and more numerous . Right now , more than 120 new cities are under construction in over 40 countries . In previous features , we ’ ve spoken about the challenges facing the cities of the future : congestion , pollution , longer food supply chains , crime , climate change , income inequality , siloed and unwieldy government bureaucracy , corruption , lack of access to healthcare , housing and education .
FEBRUARY 2020