The city's latitude and elevation provide a mild climate. The Asian population includes Japanese, Chinese, and Indians. Among the Europeans are Germans, Hungarians, Italians, and French. With the city's rapid urbanization and industrialization between the two world wars, a large influx of blacks from the rural areas set up squatter camps and shanty towns. It now houses more than a million people and has housing, health, education, and welfare facilities that are separate from the rest of Johannesburg.
Whites live in exclusive suburbs in the northern part of the city.
Tall buildings overlook Johannesburg's narrow downtown streets. Streets in the suburbs are more spacious and treelined. The city is the administrative headquarters of the gold mining companies located in the vicinity. A financial center, it houses the Stock Exchange, established in 1887, and several banks and insurance companies. The University of Witwatersrand for English-speaking students was founded in Johannesburg in 1922.