Global urbanization and demographic growth in cities constitute both an opportunity and also a challenge for sustainable development. While many cities in high income countries experience continued urban sprawl or depopulation, the United Nations expect that the majority of the world’s future population growth will be concentrated in the cities of low- and middle-income countries that have undergone intensive population growth in recent decades.

The Laboratory of Urban Demography (URBDEMO) aims at understanding better the patterns of demographic change in cities from a comparative and multi-scale spatial perspective, at the intra-city, national and international levels. We study both the natural components of city growth (i.e. births and deaths) and the migration component including within- and between-country movements of people. Of interest also is how these demographic dynamics are shaped by, and in turn determine, the characteristics of cities, the processes of socioeconomic development, environmental change and urban planning.

This research is in part funded by the European Research Council within the framework of the European Union ‘s Horizon 2020 program. Besides undertaking fundamental research, we are also committed to building research capacity in low- and middle-income countries, and advise stakeholders on population issues.