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Project Overview

Over the past 60 years urbanisation and cities have fundamentally transformed the social, economic and political geography of West Africa. The number of people living in cities increased from 5 million in 1950 to 170 million in 2015. During the same period the number of towns and cities with more than 10 000 inhabitants grew from 159 to close to 2 300, the large majority of which are secondary cities and small towns. Cities are growing in size and number.

Although there is growing interest in African cities, up-date and comparable statistics are rarely available to inform analyses and provide evidence base for policy recommendation. In addition, the urbanisation discourse tends to be limited to the aggregate level, looking at the overall rate of urbanisation and focusing on the continent’s mega-cities. Little policy attention is given to the thousands of secondary cities and small towns, their number and location, their spatial interactions and their connectivity to the network of cities.

The Africapolis program contributes to closing this data and knowledge gap. Africapolis is geo- spatial database on cities and urbanisation dynamics in Africa. Its original methodology combines national population data, satellite and aerial imagery and other cartographic sources to provide population estimates at the level of individual agglomerations, systematic geolocation and information on the size and evolution of an agglomeration's built-up area since 1950. Africapolis data provides the evidence base for a wide range of development policies at the local, national and regional levels. By integrating thousands of agglomerations with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants, it delivers a better understanding of the spatial transformations brought about by urbanisation, and strengthens analyses of the connections and flows being made across the urban network.

Role/Programs used
Wireframing/UI/UX/Front-end development/Branding/Data visualization, Promotion animation
using Adobe XD, Illustrator, After Effects, React.js, D3plus

Link to platform

Link to Africapolis

Media coverage

Le Monde Afrique