Openning Session: Urbanization in Latin America

BEATRIZ CUENYA

Buenos Aires

Workshop; Beyond the Tipping Point: Latin American Development in an Urban World; 2009

United Nations World Institute for Development and Economic Research

In the opening session of this event, I would like to make a very brief appreciation on one of the key issues which have been selected for this workshop: Namely the economic, political, social and environmental implications of fact that around 2007, for the first time in history, the world  became predominantely urban. In this direction, I would like to point out that the experience of Latin American could be instructive. Because Latin America is already a highly urbanized region since 1960.  In the year 2000, it is the most urbanized region of the developing world, with 75% of its population living in cities. This happened although in the 90s there was a sharp decrease in the rhythm of growth of the urban population in the main countries, since vegetative growth was low and migration from land to city was reduced.