Brunei’s Urban Dwellers On The Rise

Bandar Seri Begawan - Among Asean countries, Brunei Darussalam ranked second to Singapore in the size of its population living in urban areas, data from the United Nations (UN) indicated.

The 2005 data showed that 100 per cent of Singapore's population lives in the city, while Brunei's was at 78 per cent.

Malaysia and the Philippines followed next at 65 and 63 per cent, respectively.

Cambodia was at the bottom, with only 20 per cent of its population living in urban areas. In Indonesia, 48 per cent is urbanised, Thailand 32 per cent, Vietnam 27 per cent, and Lao 22 per cent.

The data indicated the average annual growth rate of urban population in Brunei from 1990 to 2005 was 3.6 per cent, faster than Singapore's 2.4 per cent.

In the same period, the annual growth_ rate of Brunei's population was also faster at 2.5 per cent against Singapore's 2.4 per cent, the data said.

In 2006, Brunei's population was estimated at 379,444, against-Singapore's 4.49 million.

In a 2005 UN report on world urbanisation, the agency said that almost half of humanity lives in cities, nearly four times as many as in 1950.

With an annual urban growth rate of 1.8 per cent, nearly double that projected for the total population (one per cent), the world's urban population is expected to increase from 3.2 billion in 2005 to 4.9 billion in 2030, when 60 per cent of the global population is expected to live in urban areas, the UN said.

It said Africa and Asia were the least urbanised areas in the world in 2005 (38 per cent and40 per cent, respectively).

But a combination of a large starting population and a projected rate of urban population growth that remains relatively high over the next 25 years results in a marked increase of the urban populations of both continents.

By 2030, Asia will rank first and Africa second, in terms of the number of urban dwellers. Indeed, in 2030, almost seven out of every 10 urban residents in the world will be living' in Africa or Asia. The proportion of urban is projected to reach 54 per cent in Asia and 51 per cent in Africa by 2030."

In the next few decades, the report said "the urban areas of` the less developed regions are projected to absorb all the population growth expected worldwide". "Urbanisation brings with it both opportunities and challenges. The more developed regions are highly urbanised indicating that urbanisation is a natural concomitant of development. In the developing world, urbanisation has beer rapid but major areas, such as Africa and Asia, still lag far behind the rest of the world in their levels of urbanisation. Countries in those regions in particular face the double challenges of rising urbanisation and continued rural population growth.

"If the 21st century is to respond creatively to the many, opportunities that the growth of urban areas brings, then the economic dynamics of cities have to be nurtured," the UN said.  -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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