The population of the developing world is still more rural than urban: some 3.1 billion people or 55 percent of the total population, live in rural areas, according to International Development Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), 2011 report on rural poverty.
However, between 2020 and 2025, the total rural population will peak and then start to decline, and the developing world’s urban population will overtake its rural population, the report added.
The report cited Latin America and the Caribbean, and the East and South East Asia where the number of rural people is already in decline.
Elsewhere, the growth of rural populations is slowing, while numbers will start to decline around 2025 in the Middle East and North Africa and in South and Central Asia, and around 2045 in sub-Saharan Africa.
