According to speakers at the recently held Chicago Forum on Global Cities, nearly four fifths of future growth is likely to come between now and 2030, from urban centres with over 0.5 million people.
At the event, presenters demonstrated that not only is this one of the positive effects of well-planned urbanisation, but that cities create significant intellectual, cultural and other benefits of value, in a world moving towards the provision of services through better educated, globally connected populations.
By international standards, Caribbean capital cities are very small: Santo Domingo has 3.6 million people, Port au Prince 2.6 million, San Juan 2.2 million, and Havana 2.1 million. After that their size falls away rapidly, to Kingston with 1.2 million, and Port-of-Spain with 0.5 million, until eventually you reach The Valley in Anguilla which has a population of just 1,067 persons. Of these, the only Caribbean city that is developing rapidly is Santo Domingo, which is