Urban Africa

The African continent is vast and diverse, but one constant holds true across it: a rapid migration from rural areas to expanding cities.

A large cluster of skyscrapers creates a sprawling, geometric landscape in Nairobi, Kenya

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Cover: Densely packed skyscrapers make for a very geometric landscape in Nairobi, Kenya | Ninara

For many, the mention of Africa conjures images of grassy plains, thick jungles, or charismatic megafauna.

To be certain, these natural spectacles are a staple of the tourism industry for most African countries.

An expansive herd of wildebeest run across a river as part of their great migration
An expansive herd of wildebeest run across a river as part of their great migration

Wildebeest cross the Serengeti | Jorge Tung

Increasingly, though, they don't represent the day-to-day realities of people living on the continent. For the locals, city life is rapidly becoming—or already is—the norm.

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Mount Kilimanjaro rises above Amboseli National Park | Sergey Pesterev

A landscape photo shows a snowcapped Mount Kilimanjaro in the distance and a grassy savanna in the foreground
A landscape photo shows a snowcapped Mount Kilimanjaro in the distance and a grassy savanna in the foreground

In 1960 less than 20 percent of Africa's population lived in cities.

Today, that number has doubled to roughly 40 percent.

A colorfully lit dome sits in the middle of an urban area surrounded by city lights

The convention center in Kigali, Rwanda, illuminated at night | Raddison

Urban centers, meanwhile, are projected to house nearly 60 percent of the population by 2050. By the numbers alone, it's clear that the rate of urbanization in Africa is truly taking off.

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Cape Town, South Africa, is home to nearly 4 million people | Pixabay

An aerial view of Cape Town, South Africa, shows a mountain ridge reaching into a city that sits on a bay
An aerial view of Cape Town, South Africa, shows a mountain ridge reaching into a city that sits on a bay

The global rise of cities

Urbanization has been a phenomenon seen round the world. Within the past decade, the world crossed a historic threshold, with more than half of the planet's human population living in cities.

Pedestrians move in between cars in two-way traffic on a busy street

People flock the streets of Kinshasa, DRC | MONUSCO

But the timing and pattern of the migration to urban centers has varied dramatically: Europe and North America have been largely urban since the 1950s, while urbanization took off in Latin America and Asia a few decades later. Now, Africa is undergoing an urban shift of its own.

Let's take a closer look at urbanization across the continent to better understand this trend.

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Graphic: Percent of each continent's population living in urban centers | Population Reference Bureau

Six doughnut charts compare the percentage of the populations that live in urban areas across continents or regions: Africa is 43 percent urban, Asia is 53 percent urban, Australia is 86 percent urban, Europe is 74 percent urban, Latin America and Caribbean is 78 percent urban, and North America is 82 percent urban.
Six doughnut charts compare the percentage of the populations that live in urban areas across continents or regions: Africa is 43 percent urban, Asia is 53 percent urban, Australia is 86 percent urban, Europe is 74 percent urban, Latin America and Caribbean is 78 percent urban, and North America is 82 percent urban.
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African urbanization, country by country

Population by the numbers

This map shows each African country's total population in 2015—represented by circle size—compared to the percentage of the population that lived in urban areas that year—represented by color.

An illustration acts as a key that goes with a map of urban areas in Africa by country that appears in the right-side panel. Smaller circles represent smaller populations, and larger circles represent large populations. The circles that are light tan represent areas that are less urban and dark tan circles represent areas that are more urban.

Africapolis

With a population of more than 188 million, Nigeria was Africa's most populous nation in 2015.

The Nile River flows between swaths of mid-rise buildings as far as the eye can see and a patch of green trees is visible in the foreground

The Nile River cuts through downtown Cairo, Egypt | Sherif Moharram

However, less than 53 percent of the Nigerian population lived in urban areas. By comparison, as much as 93 percent of Egypt's population was urbanized by 2015, making it the most urban country on the continent.

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15 years of growth...

Looking back more than a decade, it's clear that urban populations across Africa have generally been on the rise. This map visualizes that growth, comparing each country's urban population size in 2000 to its size in 2015.

An illustration acts as a key that goes with a map of urban areas in Africa by country that appears in the right-side panel. Different sizes of yellow circles compare the size of populations between 2000 and 2015, with the larger urban populations represented by larger circles.

Africapolis

While Nigeria and Egypt stand out here for their sheer size, explore the map in greater detail and you'll find some interesting pieces of information. Compare, for instance, Nigeria with Ethiopia.

Several people in a crowd are wearing matching shirts and appear to be happy

A celebratory scene in Ethiopia's Addis Ababa | Yonatan Tesfaye

Ethiopia's urban population grew by nearly 18 million people over 15 years; that's a fraction of the 50-million-person increase Nigeria experienced during the same time. But, factoring in each country's starting point, Ethiopia's urban population nearly tripled, while Nigeria's essentially doubled.

As this example demonstrates, having a sense of the amount of urban population growth is a good place to start, but there is more to this story than just sheer size.

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...15 years of change

In the previous map, more populous countries distracts a bit from urbanization's impact on smaller countries—which often see more drastic rates of change than their larger counterparts. This map, therefore, tells us which countries are shifting from rural to urban living the quickest.

An illustration acts as a key that goes with a map showing the rate of change in urbanization within countries in Africa that appears in the right-side panel. Different sizes of yellow or orange circles compare the change in urban populations between 2000 and 2015, with the increasing amounts of urban populations represented by larger, darker orange circles, and decreasing rates represented by yellow circles.

Africapolis

Through this lens, a new set of countries—including Angola, Kenya, and Rwanda—initially draw the eye. The proportion of Rwanda's population living in cities, for example, grew by 30 percentage points over 15 years.

Now that we've considered these trends at the country level, let's see how they play out on a more granular level.

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Exploring urbanization at the city level

Population density, mapped

Here we can see where on the continent people are the most concentrated.

An illustration of a gradient line with less dense in lighter shades of tan and more dense populations in dark shades of tan acts as a key that goes with a map comparing the population density in different areas across Africa that appears in the right-side panel.

SEDAC, Africapolis

One of the first things to stand out is the close proximity to water—like the Nile river or lake Victoria—for many of the most densely populated areas.

A group of tents covering shop stalls sits in a public square of a growing city

One of Kampala, Uganda's many markets | Kevin James

Regional hubs like Nigeria and Ethiopia are also interesting to examine, revealing the outward creep of a growing population fueled by greater economic opportunity.

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Urban centers, mapped

Unsurprisingly, the population density patterns largely translate into a map of cities across the continent.

An illustration acts as a key that goes with a map of urban areas in Africa by country that appears in the right-side panel. Smaller circles represent smaller populations, and larger circles represent large populations.

Africapolis

Africa is home to some of the world’s largest megacities: As of 2015, it had 11 urban areas with more than 5 million inhabitants each.

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Among these urban centers are some of the oldest human settlements on the continent.

Cairo is Africa’s largest urban agglomeration with a population of nearly 23 million. Several former colonial centers, like Lagos, Nigeria (which bears a Portuguese name), also boast mega-sized populations.

A view of urban skyscrapers sitting on the shore of a large body of water

A view of Lagos from off the coast | Anders Broberg

Generally speaking, all of these megacities are located in areas that are, or once were, economically strategic.

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Agglomerations and rates of change, revisited

As was hinted at in our country-level maps above, megacities are not necessarily the fastest-growing urban areas in Africa, and rural exodus is not necessarily the primary driver of urbanization across the continent. 

An illustration acts as a key that goes with a map of rates of population growth in urban areas in Africa by country that appears in the right-side panel. Smaller circles represent less growth, and larger circles represent more growth.

Africapolis

Rather, rapid population growth and development within rural areas has led to the emergence of thousands of small urban agglomerations. Between 2000 and 2015, the number of agglomerations of 10,000 to 100,000 people grew by nearly 50 percent.

This pattern is especially evident in the Great Lakes region of East Africa, which has experienced the greatest rates of urbanization since 2000.

An aerial view of a landscape with green areas in the middle and areas with buildings closely packed together on the edge of the green area

Human settlements dot Rwanda's green hills | Francisco Anzola

In the forests and mountains of Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda, natural barriers (such as rivers and valleys) have produced narrow “corridors” of development, and many of the urban agglomerations here span several administratively independent cities or settlements.

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Dig into the data on your own

The maps above use data from Africapolis, a project of the Sahel and West Africa Club in collaboration with e-geopolis.org.

It's pretty extensive data, and this brief discussion has only started to scratch the surface of it. You can peruse more of its analysis on Africapolis' own site, or download it and dive in that way.

Or, if you'd like a head start, find the layers above in ArcGIS Online, pull them directly into a web map of your own from there, and see what other trends you can uncover on your own.

Animated map showing several different types of data related to urban areas in Africa
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This story was created by Esri's StoryMaps team. Ross Donihue, Greyson Harris, and Cooper Thomas took the lead on cartography, while Allen Carroll, Michelle Thomas, and Hannah Wilber assisted with graphics, research, and writing. Learn more about ArcGIS StoryMaps—and build a story of your own— here .


Recommended reads:

Cover: Densely packed skyscrapers make for a very geometric landscape in Nairobi, Kenya | Ninara

Wildebeest cross the Serengeti | Jorge Tung

Mount Kilimanjaro rises above Amboseli National Park | Sergey Pesterev

The convention center in Kigali, Rwanda, illuminated at night | Raddison

Cape Town, South Africa, is home to nearly 4 million people | Pixabay

People flock the streets of Kinshasa, DRC | MONUSCO

Graphic: Percent of each continent's population living in urban centers | Population Reference Bureau

Africapolis

The Nile River cuts through downtown Cairo, Egypt | Sherif Moharram

Africapolis

A celebratory scene in Ethiopia's Addis Ababa | Yonatan Tesfaye

Africapolis

SEDAC, Africapolis

One of Kampala, Uganda's many markets | Kevin James

Africapolis

A view of Lagos from off the coast | Anders Broberg

Africapolis

Human settlements dot Rwanda's green hills | Francisco Anzola