Population growth in the world's largest cities

This paper uses recent UN data to examine population growth in the world's 485 largest cities between 1950 and 2010. Three themes guide the analysis. First, the changing population size distribution of these large cities is studied. Second, the changing global urban center of gravity is calculated and mapped. As expected, this urban centroid drifted steadily to the south and east after 1950. Third, the cities are grouped into 10 clusters, ranked from fastest growing to slowest growing, based on the similarity of their 5-year population growth rates during the 60-year study period. Some generalizations regarding size and location are given for the cities in these clusters and future trends for the world's largest cities are briefly discussed.