New data and an accompanying report from the World Bank shows that almost 200 million people moved to urban areas in East Asia from 2000-2010—a figure that would be the world’s sixth-largest population for any single country. The Pearl River Delta in China—which includes the cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan and Dongguan—has overtaken Tokyo as the world’s largest urban area in both size and population, with more inhabitants than countries such as Argentina, Australia or Canada. At the same time, most of East Asia’s population is still non-urban, meaning the region will likely face decades of further urbanization. Urban extent in China’s Pearl River Delta, 2010 (gray) and urban extension by 2010 (red). Source: World Bank. Click to enlarge. Rapid urbanization is a significant challenge for East Asia, but we cannot manage what we cannot measure. We’re releasing this data so urban leaders can get a better picture and […]