Urbanization in Southeast Asia. Research Ideas from the Experience of Vietnam

In 2008, for the first time, the world’s urban population surpassed the rural population, crossing the threshold of 50%, according to the most coherent and most comparative estimates at international level (United Nations: Population Division, 2008). Indeed, the major obstacle to overcome in the study of the world urbanization resides in differences in the definition of urban agglomerations and their limits among various countries, as well as in the modification of these limits over time.