Saturday, May 26, 2007
MegaDemographic Milestone: 3,303,992,253
byThree days ago, on May 23rd, a historic milestone was reached according to scientists at North Carolina State University and the University of Georgia. For the first time in world history, the number of people living in cities (3,303,992,253) exceeded the number of people living in rural areas (3,303,866,404).
The article at Science Blog says the United States experienced this same milestone way back in the early 1900s, and currently, only 21 percent of our country’s population is rural.
As demographers have pointed out, one of the things that is quickly accelerating this trend worldwide is the massive shift from rural to urban populations in two of the world’s most populous countries: China and India. Much of the impetus for this shift is brought about by people looking to escape the poverty in rural areas for the promise of a better life in the city. This shift in populations and incomes will fuel overseas marketing growth just as it did in the United States nearly a century ago. With rising incomes, come rising expectations, and people that were once too low on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs move higher up the pyramid and into the range of people with disposable incomes that marketers can reach and influence.
It also seems ironic because as we have seen in this country, it often appears the eventual goal of the urban masses is to make enough money to move back into rural areas as soon as they can swing it.
