Lewis Dijkstra (p)

To overcome the wide variation in national definition of urban areas, six international organisation developed a global methodology called the Degree of Urbanisation. It was developed to facilitate international comparisons and not replace national definitions. This methodology was endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission in 2020. Since its endorsement, a growing number of countries has implemented the definition. This implementation is supported by a wide range of international agencies including UN Statistical Division, UN Habitat, UN FPA, OECD and the World Bank.. This key note will give a brief overview of the methodology, its development and implementation by countries across the globe. In response to comments from statistical offices and researchers, the definition has been improved and expanded to also cover functional rural areas and urban agglomerations. In parallel to the implementation by individual countries, a growing amount of data by Degree of Urbanisation based on surveys, censuses and satellite imagery has become available. The combination of the new definition and new data allows us to gain new insights. The key note will show how natural change, net-migration and reclassification have affected cities, towns and rural areas in different ways. It will highlight the big differences in density and land use between cities and urban agglomerations in high and low income countries. Last, it will show how life in cities differs from that in rural areas across the globe using the latest results from the Gallup World Poll.