Massive urbanization is the only way the world can survive the massive population increase, says Mathias Hundsalz, Ph.D., who coordinated the report. Urban areas offer a higher life expectancy, lower absolute poverty, and can provide essential services more cheaply and on a larger scale than rural areas. The problem has never been that cities are worse places to live they are in fact much better for the poor the problem is that cities have more and more people living in them and relying on their services. Cities have many other advantages. The high population densities mean lower costs per households and per enterprise for the provision of water, waste disposal, and health care.
Cities can also provide emergency services much more quickly than rural settlements.
In addition to their ability to provide health and social services, cities foster greater education. This improved education often leads to reduced birth rates. Thus, urbanization will help reduce population growth. The latest global census shows slower rates of population growth in many cities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where overpopulation is most rampant. The vicious cycle of poverty increasing homelessness, and homelessness perpetuating poverty, can only be broken in cities, because cities have free or inexpensive social services that give the poor a place to start, says Dr. Hundsalz.