Migration flows can be sensitive indicators of the geography of economic opportunity
and vitality. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) assumptions are too often made about the
scale and direction of migration flows between rural and urban areas and about the
ubiquity of rapid urbanisation across the region. This can divert attention from the
economic realities of the developmental landscape in individual countries and from the
increasing differentiation between them. This paper will demonstrate, using census data
and other sources, that the rate at which urbanisation levels have recently been
increasing in many large mainland SSA countries where the majority of SSA people live
has significantly reduced, although some continue to urbanise very rapidly. It will also
show that SSA is not, as is often asserted, the world’s fastest urbanising region: many
Asian countries (according to UN Habitat data) are urbanising faster. A key reason why
SSA urbanisation levels in some countries are rising more slowly is changes in the net
rate of in-migration to urban areas in many countries, often because of rising rates of
circular migration related to weak urban economies. This paper will discuss the reasons
why misleading ideas about SSA urbanisation remain common and reflect upon the
need to study in greater depth the ways in which the region’s current natural-resource
based GDP growth feeds through into urbanisation and migration flows.