The structure of the remainder of the paper is as follows. Section 2 discusses how official definitions of urban areas in LAC countries compare to those in non-LAC countries and introduces both the AI and cluster methods for the consistent measurement of urbanization. Section 3 describes the data used to implement both the AI and cluster methods, focusing, in particular, on the input gridded population data. Section 4 presents the results from re-assessing LAC’s position relative to the basic stylized facts of urbanization, development and structural transformation when urbanization is consistently measured. Finally, Section 5 concludes.

# **2. Measuring Urbanization**

# 2.1. _Official definitions of urban areas in LAC versus non-LAC countries_<sup>13</sup>

Most published research on urbanization and development relies on data which utilizes national definitions to measure cross-country differences in levels of urbanization, and it is this same data that underpins the stylized facts depicted in Figure 1. These data are usually taken from the United Nations’ World Urbanization Prospects (WUP) database or, equivalently, the World Bank’s World Development Indicators (WDI) database (see also footnote 2). As part of its database, the UN provides supporting documentation on how each of the 232 included countries defines its urban areas. Table 1 shows that 133 of these countries use one or more of four basic types of criteria to define their urban areas.<sup>14</sup> By far the most commonly used criterion is a minimum population size threshold (103 countries). The remaining three criteria are less frequently used. Hence, 30 countries include references to the availability of infrastructure and services (e.g. piped water or schools) or other “urban” characteristics in their definitions; 16 countries to the structure of the local economy, mostly referring to the presence or predominance of non-agricultural activity, and 11 countries to a minimum population density threshold. The remaining 99 countries do not make use of any explicitly stated criteria. Rather, they either simply list their urban areas by name, or state a designation of administrative units that constitutes cities.

Compared to the overall sample of WUP countries, a smaller share of the 40 LAC countries covered by the WUP database use a specific criterion or criteria to define urban areas (i.e. 42 percent of countries versus 57 percent). LAC countries are also less likely to employ a minimum population threshold in their definitions of urban than the sample overall (30 percent versus 44 percent). These differences between the LAC countries and the overall sample are mainly driven by the Caribbean countries. Conversely, LAC countries are more likely to include reference to the provision of infrastructure or services in their definition (i.e. 20 percent versus 13 percent). In this case, the difference between LAC and the global sample is driven by the Latin American countries.<sup>15</sup> Rwanda produced by the US Census Bureau as part of its international _Demobase_ project (http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/mapping/demobase.html). 13 This sub-section draws, in part, on a previous conference paper by two of the authors (Deuskar and Stewart, 2016). 14 For all countries (except Austria) urban criteria fall into at least one of these four broadly defined categories. However, every country’s definition is slightly different, and may include particularities not fully reflected among these four. For example, the definition for Honduras (see Annex 2), was counted in the ‘population size’ and ‘urban services or characteristics’ categories, but also has elements that do not fit neatly in either (e.g. “ _communication by land (road or train) or regular air or maritime service_ ”). Austria’s definition is unique in that, at least according to the definition listed in the WUP, it is based on commuting patterns into an urban core, and does not fall into any of these categories. 15 A complete list of official definitions of urban used by LAC countries is provided in Annex 2 (see Table A2).

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