Contrasting Global Cities
A World of Cities
In 2008, for the first time in human history, more than half of the world’s population lived in towns and cities. By 2024 the figure passed 57%. The number of global cities — New York, London, Tokyo, Shanghai, Mumbai, Lagos — has grown alongside this shift. Their distribution has changed too: in 1950 most megacities were in high-income countries, while today most are in Asia and Africa.
Comparing London and Mumbai
For this course you must study one city in a high-income country (HIC) and one in a low- or newly-industrialised country (LIC/NIC). London (UK, HIC) and Mumbai (India, NIC) are used here. Both are global cities — financial centres, transport hubs and media powerhouses — but the way each grows and the problems each faces look very different.
Why London Grew
London’s population reached around 9.0 million in 2024, up from 7.0 million in 2000. Growth comes mainly from international migration rather than natural increase — over 40% of Londoners were born outside the UK. The city pulls migrants because of pull factors: financial-sector jobs in the City and Canary Wharf, world-leading universities, and the English language.
Internal migration matters too. Young UK adults move to London for graduate jobs (push factor: limited career options in some northern towns). Some Londoners then move out again in their thirties when they start families — a flow tied to high housing costs.
Why Mumbai Grew
Mumbai’s population is around 21 million, having grown from 12 million in 1990. Most growth comes from internal rural-to-urban migration, with around 1,000 people arriving every day. Push factors in rural Maharashtra and Bihar: small landholdings, drought, low rural wages and limited rural healthcare. Pull factors in Mumbai: the docks, Bollywood (the world’s largest film industry by volume), the textile industry, and IT and finance jobs in the Bandra-Kurla Complex.
Mumbai is also connected internationally — over 50 million passengers passed through Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in 2019, and Jawaharlal Nehru Port, in the Mumbai region, is one of India’s biggest container ports. Migration from across South Asia has made Mumbai one of the most linguistically diverse cities in the world.
London’s population reached around 9.0 million in 2024, growing mainly through international migration. Mumbai’s population is around 21 million, growing through internal rural-to-urban migration with about 1,000 arrivals each day.
Ways of Life in London
London is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in Europe — more than 300 languages are spoken there. The wealthiest areas (Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster) sit minutes from some of the most deprived (parts of Tower Hamlets and Newham). Average life expectancy in Kensington is about 84 years; in some neighbourhoods of Tower Hamlets it is closer to 78. Housing affordability is the biggest day-to-day pressure: average house prices passed £530,000 in 2024.
Ways of Life in Mumbai
Mumbai shows extreme contrasts on a single street. Antilia, a private 27-storey skyscraper home, sits on the same skyline as Dharavi — a 2 sq km area where roughly 700,000 people live, work and trade. Dharavi is part of the informal economy: pottery, leather, recycling and food workshops generate around US$1 billion of trade a year, but most workers have no contracts, no sick pay and no formal protection.
Around 60% of Mumbai’s working population are estimated to be in informal jobs — street vendors, dabbawalas (lunchbox couriers), domestic workers, recyclers in Dharavi. The informal economy provides essential goods and services cheaply and creates work for new arrivals who would otherwise be unemployed.
The downside: workers earn little, conditions are dangerous (Dharavi’s recycling sheds use chemicals without ventilation), tax revenue is missed, and women in informal work are especially exposed to harassment. Schemes such as the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) try to give informal workers some collective bargaining power.
Current Urban Challenges
London: housing affordability is the headline crisis — over 165,000 people in the capital are in temporary accommodation. Air pollution has been linked to early deaths in poorer neighbourhoods, prompting the Ultra Low Emission Zone in 2019. Reducing deprivation requires regeneration that does not simply price out long-term residents.
Mumbai: providing decent housing for its huge informal sector is the biggest challenge. The Dharavi Redevelopment Project, restarted in 2022 with the Adani Group, plans to rehouse residents in modern flats and convert the rest into commercial space. Critics worry that the relocations will break the network of micro-businesses that gives Dharavi its income. Air pollution and monsoon flooding are also worsening as the city expands.
London faces housing affordability and air pollution — over 165,000 in temporary accommodation, with the Ultra Low Emission Zone since 2019. Mumbai faces housing 700,000 people in Dharavi alone, addressed by the restarted Dharavi Redevelopment Project (2022).
Connected to the World
Both cities are anchors in the network of globalisation. London is a centre of finance (the City), media (BBC, Reuters) and aviation (Heathrow handled around 79 million passengers in 2023). Mumbai is the headquarters of the Reserve Bank of India, the centre of Bollywood, and a key port for Indian Ocean trade. Both attract migrants, both export culture, and both shape the global economy through finance and media.