The dramatic shift of the world’s population into urban areas is encouraging citizens, city planners, businesses and governments to start looking at visions of “smart” cities. According to the website Postscapes, just 3 percent of the world’s population lived in cities in 1800. By 1950 it had risen to 29 percent and by 2008 to 50 percent. By 2040, 65 percent of the world’s population are expected live in cities.

These emerging and soon to be built metropolises contain an entire connected ecosystem that brings together the technologies, solutions, players and audiences in the smart city sector, including IoT, 5G connectivity, transportation and smart automotive, energy and utilities, health and public safety, artificial intelligence, and data analytics.
Here are some eye opening statistics about smart cities gathered by Postscapes:
  • 1.3 million people are currently moving into cities each week
  • There are 21 megacities with over 10 million people. Up until 1975 there were just three: New York, Tokyo and Mexico City.
  • There are more than 36 million people in Tokyo. If it were a country, it would rank 35th in size.
  • 2025, the number of megacities is expected to reach with an additional five in Asia (Shenzhen, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Jakarta and Lahore), two in Latin America (Bogota and Lima), and one in Africa (Kinshasa) If it were a country, it would rank 35th in population size.
Click here to see Postscape’s smart cities infographic.