Morocco Holds Steady at 13th in African Urbanization Rankings

The urban population in Africa is growing rapidly. According to the latest World Bank statistics, Morocco finds itself in 13th place on the continent, credited with an urbanization rate of 62.5% for the year 2018. These figures allow the kingdom to mark an evolution of 0.6 percentage points compared to the previous ranking, reports Challenge.

In Africa, according to the international institution, Morocco, although quite far behind in this ranking, still manages to somewhat compensate this gap between it and the countries that form the leading group, whose average urbanization rate stands at 72.2%. In reality, points out the World Bank report, in terms of socio-economic development, these countries are "quite heterogeneous". On the other hand, they share a "galloping, sometimes anarchic urbanization that is neither virtuous socially nor from an environmental point of view," the same report specifies.

Among these countries, we find Maghrebians from the East such as Libya, Tunisia and Algeria, French-speaking countries such as Djibouti, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, Portuguese-speaking countries such as Angola and Cape Verde, or even English-speaking countries including South Africa and Botswana. Considering the top 15 most urbanized African countries, Morocco, which has an urbanization rate of 62.5%, only surpasses two states, namely Gambia and the Seychelles, which stand at 61% and 57% respectively, indicates Challenge.

One remark still jumps out, according to the World Bank statistics, which note that Morocco has experienced a slowdown in its urbanization trend, no doubt due to the slowdown in rural exodus, the main driver of urbanization until 2000. This is rather, affirms the same source, a "truce" beneficial to the Moroccan authorities who will be able to "catch up at a lower cost".