25 years from now, two out of every three people on the planet will live in urban areas.
What will these cities look like?
Will they be resilient, sustainable, equitable?
With Urban Futures, a new global initiative from Economist Impact,
we examine how cities can flourish in a world of rapid transformation.
Because the cities of the future won't just be where we live, they'll shape how we live.
Visit impact.economist.com forward slash urban futures to learn more.
The Economist.
Hello and welcome to The Intelligence from The Economist.
I'm your host, Rosie Bloor.
Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.
There's an area in Washington DC that was once called Swampoodle.
Doesn't sound too appealing, does it?
But since developers built a metro station, new housing, and renamed it NOMA,
it's become one of the fastest growing neighborhoods in America.
And ghosts, spirits and fortune-telling are part of daily life in Hong Kong.
But who are the experts who guide people's views on them?
And what happens when they start to have discernible effects on key industries?
First up though.
So the sounds you hear are the hustle and bustle of the passport office in central Baghdad.