The Coordination Between Urban Population Growth and Economic Development in African Countries

Urbanization in African countries entails substantial growth in the urban population and economic development. The interdependent progress of the population and economy significantly impacts the sustainable development of these nations. By constructing an evaluation framework, this paper assesses th...

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Main Authors: Hang Ren, Zhenke Zhang, Shengnan Jiang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-06-01
Series:Systems
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2079-8954/13/6/449
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author Hang Ren
Zhenke Zhang
Shengnan Jiang
author_facet Hang Ren
Zhenke Zhang
Shengnan Jiang
author_sort Hang Ren
collection DOAJ
description Urbanization in African countries entails substantial growth in the urban population and economic development. The interdependent progress of the population and economy significantly impacts the sustainable development of these nations. By constructing an evaluation framework, this paper assesses the urban population growth and economic development systems in African countries. Building upon the coupling coordination model, it quantitatively investigates the relationship between the two and utilizes a geographical detector model to analyze the driving factors of the coordination of evolution. The findings reveal a continuous improvement in the quality of urban population growth and economic development between 2001 and 2020. Nevertheless, their overall quality remains relatively low, exhibiting considerable variation across different countries. Many African countries struggle with a low level of development coordination, with economic progress often trailing behind the pace of urban population growth. The average coupling coordination degree increased from 0.464 to 0.526 over 20 years, with 48.08% of countries still in uncoordinated development by 2020. Factors such as industrialization, foreign trade dependence, government spending, international aid, and political stability are all influential factors affecting the degree of coordination. The absence of industrialization in conjunction with urbanization poses a major impediment to effectively harnessing urban population growth for economic development. Ultimately, this study provides a targeted framework for integrating urban population growth and economic development to address low coupling coordination.
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spelling doaj-art-e1be2ca92cb449a7b4556c512fe0f7de2025-08-20T03:26:52ZengMDPI AGSystems2079-89542025-06-0113644910.3390/systems13060449The Coordination Between Urban Population Growth and Economic Development in African CountriesHang Ren0Zhenke Zhang1Shengnan Jiang2Institute of Population Studies, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing 210042, ChinaInstitute of African Studies, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, ChinaWu Jinglian School of Economics, Changzhou University, Changzhou 213000, ChinaUrbanization in African countries entails substantial growth in the urban population and economic development. The interdependent progress of the population and economy significantly impacts the sustainable development of these nations. By constructing an evaluation framework, this paper assesses the urban population growth and economic development systems in African countries. Building upon the coupling coordination model, it quantitatively investigates the relationship between the two and utilizes a geographical detector model to analyze the driving factors of the coordination of evolution. The findings reveal a continuous improvement in the quality of urban population growth and economic development between 2001 and 2020. Nevertheless, their overall quality remains relatively low, exhibiting considerable variation across different countries. Many African countries struggle with a low level of development coordination, with economic progress often trailing behind the pace of urban population growth. The average coupling coordination degree increased from 0.464 to 0.526 over 20 years, with 48.08% of countries still in uncoordinated development by 2020. Factors such as industrialization, foreign trade dependence, government spending, international aid, and political stability are all influential factors affecting the degree of coordination. The absence of industrialization in conjunction with urbanization poses a major impediment to effectively harnessing urban population growth for economic development. Ultimately, this study provides a targeted framework for integrating urban population growth and economic development to address low coupling coordination.https://www.mdpi.com/2079-8954/13/6/449African urbanizationcoupling coordination systemurban population growtheconomic developmentindustrialization
spellingShingle Hang Ren
Zhenke Zhang
Shengnan Jiang
The Coordination Between Urban Population Growth and Economic Development in African Countries
Systems
African urbanization
coupling coordination system
urban population growth
economic development
industrialization
title The Coordination Between Urban Population Growth and Economic Development in African Countries
title_full The Coordination Between Urban Population Growth and Economic Development in African Countries
title_fullStr The Coordination Between Urban Population Growth and Economic Development in African Countries
title_full_unstemmed The Coordination Between Urban Population Growth and Economic Development in African Countries
title_short The Coordination Between Urban Population Growth and Economic Development in African Countries
title_sort coordination between urban population growth and economic development in african countries
topic African urbanization
coupling coordination system
urban population growth
economic development
industrialization
url https://www.mdpi.com/2079-8954/13/6/449
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