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  • Title: Population distribution and development policies in the ESCAP region.
    Author: United Nations. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific ESCAP. Population Division.
    Journal: Popul Res Leads; 1983; (13):1-28. PubMed ID: 12339101.
    Abstract:
    Attention in this discussion of population distribution and development policies in the countries of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) region is directed to the following: general trends in urban population growth (the shift towards urban areas and towards big cities and demographic components of urban and rural population growth); the impact of development policies on population redistribution (urban and rural development); issues for consideration (overconcentration, agricultural development strategies, and the role of middle sized cities); and the need for a comprehensive population redistribution policy. Over the 1950 to 2000 period, while the world urban population is expected to increase about 4 fold, the ESCAP urban population is projected to increase more than 6 fold and will contain 43% of the total world population. Many features of urban life, such as housing construction, health education, and transport services, are primary functions of urban growth. Management of these functions in the next 2 decades will be considerably more difficult for the developing countries than it has ever been for the developed countries as the anticipated gain in the region's urban population between 1975 and 2000 (708 million) is almost double the estimated gain between 1950-75 (347 million). The decade of the 1980s marks a turning point in the history of urbanization in the region. For the 1st time in this region more people are being added to the urban than to the rural sector. Urbanization in Asia has been accompanied by the explosive growth of big cities. The growth of urban population and the concomitant decline in rural population can be demarkated into 3 demographic components: natural increase; migration; and reclassification or rural places to urban places. On the basis of 65 observations, the UN has estimated that in the more developed countries, the mean contribution of migration and reclassification to urban growth was 60%, thus leaving 40% of growth as due to natural increase. Given the wide diversity of national conditions and governmental policies relating to population redistribution and development, some country experiences are discussed to explain the factors behind the changing patterns of population distribution. Generally, levels of urbanization rise as levels of national income and industrial production rise. The concern here is not the levels of urbanization as such, but rather the rate of its concentration. In the ESCAP region, some countries have a strong primacy pattern, while others reveal a decreasing primacy trend, and still other have more balanced urban hierarchies, although their urbanization structure appears to be moving towards more and more concentration.
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