ENI — More people in the world are living in cities than ever before, and this is leading to renewed interest in religion, according to a new UN report.
“Rapid urbanisation was expected to mean the triumph of rationality, secular values and the demystification of the world, as well as the relegation of religion to a secondary role. Instead, there has been a renewal in religious interest in many countries,” the United Nations Population Fund says in its report, The State of World Population 2007.
The growth of new religious movements is primarily an urban phenomenon, the report notes.
The report points to “Islam in the Arab region, Pentecostal Christianity in Latin America and parts of Africa, and the cult of Shivaji in parts of India.” In China, where cities are growing at a breakneck pace, religious movements are fast gaining adherents, the report adds.
By 2008, more than half the world's current 6.7 billion people will live in cities, the report states. It says that by then, though mega-cities — urban areas with more than 10 million inhabitants — will continue to grow, most people will be living in cities of 500,000 or fewer.
