ABSTRACT

The urban/rural growth rate difference, or URG D, is the centerpiece of the method developed by the United Nations Population Division to estimate and project urban populations. In its initial formulation, however, the United Nations method did not exploit the full implications of equation (B.7) in Appendix B. Here we first discuss the extrapolation method as it was presented by the United Nations (1974: 29), and then show how the refinements later introduced by the United Nations (1980: 10-11) exploited the equation.