Urbanisation is increasing. By 2007, more than 3.2 billion people were living in towns and cities! This is over half the world's population! In many MEDCs, over 90% of the population were urban inhabitants.
There has been an increase in the number of large cities that have a population of 5 million - these are known as SUPERCITIES.
MEGACITIES have a population of 10 million and they tend to dominate countries in terms of their size, location of manufacturing and investment.
WORLD CITIES are cities of power based on trade and political strength, innovation and communications.
A MEGALOPOLIS is a very large urban area that contains several metropolitan centres.
Los Angeles is not only a megacity, but it is a world city too.