City Dwellers

If you asked most Americans where they are from, they would give you the name of a city that has a population over 100,000 people. We tend to think that it was always that way, that Americans were always urban. But that is not true. The truth is that there has been a tremendous growth of urbanization in the modern era.

When George Washington took the oath of office as President of the United States in 1790, ninety percent of Americans lived in rural areas. The largest cities in the United States were:

• New York City - 26,000
• Philadelphia - 24,000
• Boston - 16,000
• Charleston, South Carolina - 12,000
• Newport, Rhode Island - 11,000

By 1900 the world's largest cities were in Europe or North America. By 2025, the largest cities in the world will be in Asia, Latin and South America, and Africa.

More and more we are city dwellers - so get used to the traffic.