An evaluation of urban migration policies in selected African countries

Abstract

The total land area of Africa, 30 million square kilometers, constitutes 21 percent of the total land area of the world; but the 1990 total population of the continent, 642 million, amounted to 12 percent of the world's population. The distribution of this population is spatially uneven. For instance, North Africa, with 28 percent of the land area had in 1990 only 22 percent of the population of the continent; whereas the West and East African sub-regions, with almost comparable land areas, 20 and 21 percent had in 1990, 30 and 31 percent of the population, respectively. The growth of urbanization, partly as a result of rural-urban migrations, is one factor responsible for the uneven spatial distribution of the population in African countries. Its two distinguishing characteristics in recent years are, the low but increasing percent urban along with the high rate of growth of the urban (as well as the total) populations.