Bigger Cities

Bigger Cities Do More with Less 

New science reveals why cities become more productive and efficient as they grow

By Luís M. A. Bettencourt and Geoffrey B. West

http://www.scientificamerican.com/cities/           
Special Issue: Cities

The city is a solution to the problems of our age, and this week, we present it in the true urban spirit: best ideas forward  »

GREATER POPULATION, GREATER DIVIDENDSImage: Graphic by Bryan Christie

More In This Article

• Overview

  Engines of Innovation

• Sidebar

  Greater Population, Greater Dividends [Video]

For centuries, people have painted cities as unnatural human conglomerations, blighted by pathologies such as public health crises, aggression and exorbitant costs of living. Why, then, do people throughout the world keep leaving the countryside for the town? Recent research that is forming a multidisciplinary science of cities is beginning to reveal the answer: cities concentrate, accelerate, and diversify social and economic activity.

The numbers show that urban dwellers produce more inventions and create more opportunities for economic growth. Often large cities are also the greenest places on the planet because people living in denser habitats typically have smaller energy footprints, require less infrastructure and consume less of the world’s resources per capita. Compared with suburban or rural areas, cities do more with less. And the bigger cities get, the more productive and efficient they tend to become.

This article was originally published with the title Bigger Cities Do More with Less.