Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Interactive content from ONS (UK)

We have already posted here some interactive content from The Office for National Statistics - ONS (UK Statistics Authority) - the interactive population pyramids of the United Kingdom.


Now you can look out for more interactive content from ONS here. You'll find animated maps of life expectancy, fertility, mortality, etc. (via @worldmapper RT @theboysmithy)

I'm more interested in this kind of data: Commuter journeys inside Greater London, 2001

[image credit: ONS]

Monday, August 29, 2011

Urban Africa


  • Mapless Map: Urban populations living in slums (via maptd). If anyone knows where to find data on Africa urbanization, please let us know!

[image credit: Riccardo Pravettoni - UNEP/GRID-Arendal]

Stupid Measures: The end of population

It has been a while since we have created a 'Stupid Measures' session here at Urban Demographics Blog. The Economist Magazine has published this chart that shows the years at which national populations will disappear.

This chart is stupid, both for technical reasons and because humankind will be extinct much earlier than that!

[Thanks Bernardo Furtado for the tip]
[image credit: The Economist Magazine]

Friday, August 26, 2011

ISUF 2011 - 18th International Seminar on Urban Form.

The 18th International Seminar on Urban Form (ISUF 2011) starts today !

Unfortunately, I couldn't attend to the event, but I hope there will be other opportunities to discuss our methodological proposal for quantifying urban centrality.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Labor Force and Economic Growth


Recently there has been some public debate about the shortage of skilled workers. The debate emerges either in developing countries with booming economies or developed countries with aging populations.

In any case, it's all about:  (1) working-age population and skilled workers; (2) educational policies in the long term and migration policies in the short term.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Assorted Links

  • The new issue of the Journal of Transport and Land Use (JLUT) focuses focuses on coevolution: how transport drives changes in land use, and vice versa. Here!


Demographics under the spotlight

And a beautiful video composed completely of photographs of Paris (by Luke Shepard via Daniel Lippman)

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Monday, August 15, 2011

Atlas of Urban Expansion

If you are looking for data on urban sprawl around the world, you should check out the Atlas of Urban Expansion by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

This is a sample of what you can do with their data (by Urban Change).

[image credit: Urban Change]

off-topic: São Paulo CBD

I have just come back from a work trip to São Paulo*. I ran into this as I walked through the CBD. 
[Photo credit: Rafael Pereira using qbro]

*Where I was promoting the book "Urban-Regional Dynamics - Urban Network and its Interfaces" (my poor translation )

Saturday, August 6, 2011

The death of distance and the rise of cities

Glaeser gave this lecture on November 13, 2008, at LSE. This event marked the launch of the Spatial Economics Research Centre.


He starts talking about this apparent paradox "The death of distance and the rise of cities" (audio only). In this lecture he tackles regional policy and declining cities, urban sprawl, urban environment and gas emissions, density, affordable housing and all other trending topics in urban studies you should be aware of.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Overestimated China

I think China is overestimated (but I might be wrong - just as my grandfather was when he said that the internet was not going anywhere).


The demographic factors that would support China's economic growth are most likely to become a demographic trap.

bonus track: China’s New Housing Agenda (lessons to learn?)
bonus track 2: (updated): More on China's demographic trends here


Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Science of Cities and the 15 percent rule

A new blog on the Science of Cities written by Professor Michael Batty.

If you are into this, you should listen to Geoffrey West at TED. (via Urbanophile)

Monday, August 1, 2011