Watch how cities spread across the world over 6,000 years
![The sun sets on the minarets and the Great Pyramids of Giza (R) in Old Cairo December 31, 2013.](https://assets.weforum.org/article/image/large_SHLKG6zok0jJdFdfYRhkNb6teSMhYJ229tK4-a5EsHM.jpg)
Here's the history of urban sprawl Image: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
![A hand holding a looking glass by a lake](/uplink.jpg)
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
Stay up to date:
Cities and Urbanization
Ever wondered where the world's first cities were? This animated map shows how urban civilizations developed over a time span of nearly 6,000 years.
Blogger Max Galka created the visualization for his Metrocosm site using data from a new study published in the journal Scientific Nature Data. It charts how cities popped up, one by one, from as far back as 3700 BC to the year AD 2000.
The study, led by a Yale-based team, collates data from previous research on city locations and populations dating back almost 6,000 years. According to the researchers, until now there had be no comprehensive digitized record of historic city populations at a global scale.
The study allows us to view our urban history over a much longer time frame than ever before, beginning with the first urban civilization (the Sumer, who lived in the southern-most part of ancient Mesopotamia; now Iraq) through to modern-day megacities.
Studying the rise and fall of cities over millennia can help to give us a better understanding of urbanization – often referred to as a modern phenomenon, but one that in reality has been going on in parts of the world for thousands of years.
How cities spread
As the study puts it: “In order to understand the current era of urbanization, we must understand long-term historical urbanization trends and patterns.”
For the first few thousand years after the establishment of sprawling agricultural populations around the Nile, cities remained roughly in the same latitudinal area as Mesopotamia.
As the map below shows, by 3700 BC urban settlements had begun to spread further east to what is now India and China, also emerging in Central America.
![Urban settlements in 3700 BC](https://assets.weforum.org/editor/k-E67_DMU4S9NLKvPlCVgTXqIqU_AyqVH4CZJd0YCok.png)
But it was not until the 19th century that urbanization became a truly global phenomenon.
![Urban settlements in 1801- 1900](https://assets.weforum.org/editor/08heayDI0glDFjWm6-Zxisz6fLlm8PxzS4WW1Aqro-o.png)
Have you read?
Don't miss any update on this topic
Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.
License and Republishing
World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
Related topics:
The Agenda Weekly
A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda
You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.
More on Economic GrowthSee all
Tarini Fernando and Nadia Shamsad
July 18, 2024
Naoko Tochibayashi and Mizuho Ota
July 17, 2024
Li Dongsheng
July 16, 2024
Andre Hoffmann, Nolita Thina Mvunelo and Felix Rüdiger
July 10, 2024
Emma Charlton
July 9, 2024