Metro Manila is still the undisputed queen of Philippine cities as it accounts for over 70 percent of the urban population of the country, according to the World Bank.
In the report titled “East Asia’s Changing Urban Landscape: Measuring a Decade of Spatial Growth,” the World Bank said Metro Manila also accounted for 56 percent of the urban land in the country.
The Manila urban area is home to 16.5 million people in 2010 followed by Cebu at 1.5 million. Three urban areas are in the 500,000-to-1 million population range, and another 16 are in the 100,000-to-500,000 range, as of 2010.
“The Manila urban area is the Philippines’s undisputed prime city, with no close competitors,” the World Bank said. “It is spatially seven times larger than the second-largest urban area, Angeles City, and 10 times more populous than the second most-populous urban area, Cebu.”
Based on the World Bank’s definition, Metropolitan Manila is composed of 85 municipalities and cities in seven provinces. It is governed separately by 17 local government units, making it an oft-cited case of metropolitan fragmentation.
With the absence of close competitors, the Philippines can only expect the population of Metro Manila to grow even more, even if it was already one of the densest urban areas in the region.
The population density of Metro Manila increased to almost 13,000 people per square kilometer in 2010, from 11,900 people per sq km in 2000.
With Metro Manila being one of the densest cities in East Asia, the World Bank believes the biggest challenge for the country is finding a good urban development model.
The report stated in cities like Vancouver, Canada and Paris, France had regional governmental authorities and other mechanisms that can help coordinate urban-service provision across municipal boundaries.
“[The challenge is] to find a good model to govern such a large area. We cited some examples, Vancouver, Paris, and others but at the end of the day, the model has to be adapted to the local realities of the Philippines,” World Bank East Asia and the Pacific Urban and Disaster Risk Management Sector Manager for Transport Abbas Jha said in a teleconference on Monday. “I think that is really the big, one single challenge on how do you find a sustainable governance model for Metro Manila.”
The World Bank said the urban population in the Philippines posted an annual increase of 3.3 percent between 2000 and 2010. The urban population grew to 23 million in 2010 from 17 million in 2000.
The population of the country that was urban—by the report’s definition—or those living in urban areas of more than 100,000 people, was 25 percent in 2010, which was lower than the proportion for the region as a whole at 36 percent.
The World Bank said in East Asia, almost 200 million people moved to urban areas in the region between 2000 and 2010. This would have made the region the sixth largest in terms of population for any single country.
“Rapid urbanization is a significant challenge for East Asia, but we cannot manage what we cannot measure,” World Bank East Asia and the Pacific Regional Vice President Axel van Trotsenburg said. “We’re releasing this data so urban leaders can get a better picture and take action to ensure that urban growth benefits the increasing number of people moving to cities, especially the poor.”
The report showed that urban areas in East Asia grew by 2.4 percent annually between 2000 and 2010. Urban land also increased to 134,000 square kilometers in 2010.
Urban populations grew faster at an annual average of 3 percent to 778 million in 2010, the largest of any region in the world. The World Bank said sources indicated that it took more than 50 years at the same rate for Europe to become urbanized.
The report used big data through satellite imagery to measure the growth of urban areas in East Asia over a period of 10 years. This is the first time that this method is being used to measure urban areas and population across East Asia.
The report also used techniques for modeling population distribution and mapping human settlements to achieve a common understanding of urbanization trends.