Megacities in Asia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Megacities in Asia - Essay Example From the per capita income of mere $76 in 1970, the country has catapulted into a huge over $19,000 per capita income in almost 40 years with the total GDP nearing to a trillion dollars. Seoul being its largest city and commercial hub, the population in the city has exploded by over 500 percent since 1960. There has been a huge migration of people from rural parts to the urban area especially to Seoul. Since early 1960s, Seoul has become the major hub of the Korean economy and has transformed into a major megalopolis now. While Seoul constitutes only 0.61% of the country's area, it â€Å"houses about 84% of government bodies and institutions, 88% of Korea’s 30 largest companies, and 75% of the 20-most popular universities in the nation. More than 65% of all bank transactions, both savings and lending, take place in Seoul" (Jeon, 2005 p5).     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   No other city in the world perhaps takes so much economic burden as Seoul has taken for its nation . Population density in Seoul is so high that the current per person residential space availability is only 20 sq. m. The space availability is quite low when compared with large western cities in the developed world such as London, New York or Paris. Even Tokyo which is considered densely populated provides per person space to the tune of 55 sq. m. On per sq. km basis, population in Seoul stands at 23,908 that shows much higher density than Tokyo at 7,099 people per sq. km. Gini index measures income inequality among the citizens on the scale of 0.0 to 1.0 with 0.