There was an interesting article about urbanisation in the last Weekend Australian magazine. It claimed that cities are good for sustainability, at least in terms of population. As people across Asia, Africa and South America move into cities the birst rate drops, by at least one child per family, almost always to below replacement level. Iran and Turkey are good examples.

When it comes to affluance, the news is not quite so good, but here the article switches to human welfare where the rise in standard of living can be seen in a more positive light. The article credits urbanisation with the dramatic decline in the number of very poor people in the world. The article points to the implications for foreign aid. Aid that encourages people to stay on the land may not be so great in the long run.

Some interesting stats: for each 60 million new city dwellers in the developing world, 36 million are born to established city dwellers and 24 million come from villages, of which only half have actually migrated - the other half because the city swallowed up the village.