Population [of Asia].

Abstract

According to the International Labor Organization's (ILO) projections, urban residents of Asia will be a massive 1.412 billion by the end of this century. ILO used the projection to underscore an observation that plans of many Asian governments to curb the flow of rural residents into their urban areas are being overwhelmed by the increasing incidence of poverty in the rural areas. The population of Asian cities increased from 218 million in 1950 to 574 million in 1975. ILO maintains that government population policies aimed at stemming the flow of migrants into the cities have no chance of success unless they can narrow the current wide gaps in income and job opportunities between village and city. Low incomes and high unemployment in the agricultural sector are pushing the rural residents to the large cities. The fact that many Asian governments favor public and social service investments in the cities to the neglect of the rural areas further exacerbates rural-urban differences in income and employment opportunities. The ILO reports that 6 out of every 7 Asian governments now consider that they have an undesireable population distribution and have adopted policies to reverse the rural-to-urban flow.