![\"istanbul\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/istanbul.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPhoto: Yannboix\/Flickr<\/p>\n
London\u2019s status as Europe\u2019s most populous metropolitan area is threatened<\/p>\n
So say Euromonitor International, who forecast that Istanbul\u2019s population will eclipse that of London between 2018-19. The Turkish city has been growing at an average rate of 2.6% since 2007, when its population was 12 million. And it will continue its growth for the rest of the decade, ending up at 16.4 million.<\/p>\n
London\u2019s average annual growth is less than 1%, which will continue unchanged to 2020, at which point it will have 16 million residents.<\/p>\n
The race to be western Europe\u2019s biggest city is a two-horse race, with Paris (current population around 12 million) a distant third.<\/p>\n
At least out of the three, we\u2019ll be able to boast that we won our bid to host the Olympics.<\/p>\n
You\u2019d probably be surprised, but Euromonitor describes western Europe as the world\u2019s least urbanised developed region, though by 2020 almost four-fifths of its population will live in cities. Half of those will reside in metropolises with more than a million people. Many of these are not \u201cmegacities\u201d, though \u2013 that label is saved for those with more than 10 million residents.<\/p>\n
Istanbul is not the only city experiencing serious growth. Of the 10 fastest-growing cities that will have more than a million residents by 2020, six are in Turkey, and Turkish cities account for the top three.<\/p>\n
There are a couple of British cities on the fastest-growing list. Newcastle-upon-Tyne\u2019s population is forecast to rise 13.8% from 2012-20 to 1.8 million. Bristolians, too, will be more numerous by 2020. Its 1.1 million population will increase by a tenth by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n
Source: Euromonitor<\/p>\n
via Istanbul set to eclipse London as Europe\u2019s biggest city by 2020 | ampp3d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Istanbul set to eclipse London as Europe\u2019s biggest city by 2020 Posted 1 day ago by Chris Stokel-Walker TRAVEL Photo: Yannboix\/Flickr London\u2019s status as Europe\u2019s most populous metropolitan area is threatened So say Euromonitor International, who forecast that Istanbul\u2019s population will eclipse that of London between 2018-19. The Turkish city has been growing at an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":106513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1094],"tags":[102],"class_list":["post-106511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tourism","tag-istanbul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}