The line graph illustrates the percentage of the urban citizens in four Asian nations, namely Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia between 1970 to 2020, with the projection for 2030 and 2040.
Overall, during the period, all four countries witnessed an upward urbanization trend, albeit at varying rates. While Malaysia has a tendency to be the country having the highest percentage of urban citizens, the lowest position has belonged to Thailand.
From 1990 to 2020, Malaysia gradually became the most urbanized country, followed by Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand. In 1970, the figure for the Philippines ranked top at 32%, before reaching the peak at 50% in 1990, decreasing to over 40% during the next 20 years and increasing again to nearly 50% in 2020. Meanwhile, the figure for Malaysia started at 30% in 1970, compared with a small proportion of 19% in Thailand and 12% in Indonesia, respectively. In contrast to the dramatic rise of the figure for Malaysia to nearly 80% and those for Indonesia to 55% in 2020, Thailand remained stable around 30% during this period.
From 2030 to 2040, a steady increase in the percentage of the urban population is predicted in all four countries but the ranks of each nation will maintain. The changes in the figures for the highest urbanized countries, namely Malaysia and Indonesia, is projected to hover around 3%, while 5% will be the shift rate in the figure for Philippines. Notably, Thailand is predicted to experience a dramatic increase by 10%, from 40% to 50% in this period.