A new McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) report, Urban World: Cities and the rise of the consuming class, analyses the massive wave of urbanization that is propelling growth across the emerging world in the coming decades.
The research expands MGI analysis of the top 2,600 cities globally, building on firm statistics which includes demographics, household structure, and incomes, and their contribution to activity and growth in different sectors, including buildings construction, port infrastructure, and municipal water supply.
The move to urban living is lifting the incomes of millions of people around the world. In cities, one billion people will enter the global “consuming class” by 2025, with incomes high enough to become significant consumers of goods and services. Around 600 million of them will live in only around 440 cities in emerging markets that are expected to generate close to half of global GDP growth between 2010 and 2025. We are witnessing incomes rising in developing economies faster and on a greater scale than at any time in history.