VANCOUVER, June 21 (UPI) -- In 2007, the world's urban population will exceed the rural population for the first time in history, a new U.N. report says.
The report also says at least one-quarter of all city dwellers will live in slums.
The "State of the World's Cities Report 2006/7" released by U.N. HABITAT found that the urban poor suffer from an "urban penalty," or the phenomenon of slum dwellers in urban areas living under worse conditions than their rural counterparts.
"This report provides concrete evidence that there are two cities within one city -- one part of the urban population that has all the benefits of urban living, and the other part, the slums and squatter settlements, where the poor often live under worse conditions than their rural relatives," said Anna Tibaijuka, U.N. HABITAT's executive director. "It is time that donor agencies and national governments recognized the urban penalty and specifically targeted additional resources to improve the living conditions of slum dwellers."
The world's 1 billion slum dwellers are more likely to die earlier, experience hunger and disease, attain less education and have fewer chances of employment than urban residents that do not reside in a slum, the report said.
As cities grow, so too do their slum populations. In many cities in sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, over 70 percent of the urban population resides in slums. Globally, the slum population is set to grow at the rate of 27 million per year in the period 2000-2020.
