World City Day

In 2014, the United Nations launched Oct. 31 as World Cities Day to promote awareness of global urbanization and highlight the need for cooperation to meet the challenges of growth.

As the world sees the biggest wave of urban growth in history, with millions of people flocking to the fast-growing cities of the developing world, cities are coming under the spotlight as never before.

Megacities are cities with more than 10 million people living in them. Tokyo is the most populated city in the world, with more than 38 million people. New York is the biggest city in the world, with 8,683 km² in area.

Cities are estimated to generate 80% of all economic growth. OECD studies showed that, for each doubling of population size, the productivity level of a city increases by 2-5% as a result of better labour distribution, education, entrepreneurship, spread of ideas, etc.