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Urban population refers to people living in urban areas as defined by national statistical offices. The indicator is calculated using the population estimates of the World Bank and urban ratios from the World Urbanization Prospects of the United Nations Organization. To estimate the urban population, the relationship of the UN city in the general population were applied to the World Bank estimates the total population. United Nations Division for Population and other institutions providing current population estimates for developing countries that do not have the latest census data both before and after the evaluation of the census for countries with census data. Cohort component method - a standard method of population estimation and forecasting - requires fertility, mortality and net migration data is often collected from sample surveys, which can be small or limited coverage. Population estimates are from the demographic modeling and so are susceptible to bias and errors from the deficiencies in the model and the data. Since the five-year age group used a single cohort data and five-year period, annual data are inserted to receive one or the age structure may not reflect actual events or age composition. Countries differ in the way they classify population as "urban" or "rural". As a rule, the community or village with a population of 2,000 or more is considered urban, but most national definitions depending on the size of the village. Eurostat defines urban areas as clusters of adjacent grid cells of 1 km2 with a density of 300 inhabitants per km2 and a minimum population of 5,000 people. Next, it determines a cluster with high density in an adjacent grid cells on one km2 with a density of at least 1500 per km2 and a minimum population of 50,000. The population of a city or metropolitan area is dependent on the selected boundaries. For example, in 1990, Beijing, China, contains 2.3 million people in 87 square kilometers of the "inner city" and 5.4 million in 158 square kilometers of "core city". The population of "the inner city and inner suburban areas" was 6.3 million, and that of the "inner city, inner and outer suburban areas, as well as internal and external constituencies" was 10.8 million people. The explosive growth of cities around the world is the demographic shift from rural to urban areas, and due to changes of the agricultural economy based on mass industry, technology and service. For the first time in history the majority of the world's population lives in the city, and this proportion continues to grow. One hundred years ago, two out of every 10 people were living in urban areas. By 1990, less than 40 percent of the world population lives in the city, but in the early 2010s, more than half of all people live in urban areas. By 2030, 6 out of every 10 people will live in cities, and by 2050 this share will increase to 7 out of 10 people. About half of all urban dwellers live in cities with between 100,000-500,000 people, and less than 10% of urban dwellers live in metropolitan areas (city with a population of over 10 million people, as defined by UN-HABITAT). Currently, the number of urban dwellers is increasing every year by almost 60 million people. By the mid-21st century, the urban population will almost double, reaching 6.4 billion in 2050, almost all the urban population growth in the next 30 years will occur in cities of developing countries. In principle, the cities offer more favorable conditions for solving social and environmental problems than in the countryside. Cities create jobs and income, as well as to provide education, health and other services. Cities also provide opportunities for social mobilization and empowerment of women. Poverty is growing faster in urban than in rural areas. According to the UN, one billion people live in urban slums, which are generally overcrowded, polluted and dangerous, and a lack of basic services such as clean water and sanitation.

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