Bright Lights, Big Cities
If you visit the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., one of the exhibits you’ll come across is a map of the Earth, which shows lights detected by satellites at night. With even a...
View ArticleUrbanization in South Asia: How is it going?
Street in old Delhi, India. Credit: World BankSouth Asia’s urban population grew by 130 million – more than the population of Japan – between 2001 and 2011, and is expected to rise by almost 250...
View ArticleSouth Asia not realizing full potential of urbanization
Urbanization provides South Asian countries with the potential to transform their economies to join the ranks of richer nations in both prosperity and livability. And, indeed the region has made...
View ArticleSouth Asian Urbanization: Messy and hidden
South Asia is not fully realizing the potential of its cities for prosperity and livability, and, according to a new report by The World Bank, a big reason is that its urbanization has been both messy...
View ArticleMore than dust in Delhi
The smog over Delhi. Photo credit: Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier / Creative Commons Urbanization provides the countries of South Asia with the opportunity to transform their economies to join the...
View ArticleOf tigers and elephants: The rise of cities in Asia
Rush hour traffic in Mumbai, India. Photo: Adam Cohn/Flickr Over the next decade and a half the world will add a staggering 1.1 billion people to its towns and cities. About one half of this...
View ArticleMeasuring the economic potential of Indian districts
Kanpur, which is one of the largest cities in the densely populated state of Uttar Pradesh, where per capita income is less than one-fifth its level in Delhi and the poverty rate is three times as...
View ArticleThree key factors for boosting the productivity of Latin American and...
Our latest report, Raising the Bar for Productive Cities in Latin America and the Caribbean, explores the productivity of Latin American and Caribbean cities and the factors that explain it.
View ArticleHow to define a metro area?
How would you define the area of Indonesia’s capital city, Jakarta? a: Simply using the administrative boundaries of the Special Capital Region of Jakarta? b: Based on the extent and density of...
View ArticleTime to ACT! Realizing Indonesia’s urban potential
New World Bank report titled “Time to ACT: Realizing Indonesia’s Urban Potential” explores Indonesia’s urbanization in terms of prosperity, inclusiveness, and livability. It introduces a new policy...
View ArticleSupporting sustainable urbanization in Indonesia
Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, is becoming increasingly urban. Today, over half of the population lives in cities; by 2045, the centenary of Indonesia's independence, nearly...
View ArticleCities without sewers - solving Indonesia’s wastewater crisis to realize its...
Cities without Sewers - Solving Indonesia’s Wastewater Crisis to Realize Its Urbanization Potential
View ArticleWhen the lights go out: How COVID-19 affected cities in the Middle East and...
COVID-19 has hit cities hard. For a sample of 50 cities spanning 18 countries across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), we used monthly composites of cloud-free satellite images and calculated...
View ArticleTracking economic activity in response to the COVID-19 crisis using night...
Essential to effective policy responses to the pandemic are not just accurate information on the spread of COVID-19 itself, but also real-time data on the associated economic impacts.
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