Remarkably, fully half the world's population now live in cities, and the numbers grow daily as people seek to escape rural poverty. This fully updated and revised third edition of the classic text offers readers a comprehensive set of tools for understanding the urban landscape, and by extension the world's politics, cultures, and economies. Providing a sweeping overview of world urban geography, this book explores the eleven major culture realms of the U.S. and Canada, Middle America and the Caribbean, South America, Europe, Russia, the Greater Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Australia and the Pacific Islands. Each author presents the region's urban history, economy, culture and society, as well as urban spatial models and problems and prospects. Vignettes of key cities give the reader a vivid understanding of daily life and the "spirit of place." An introductory chapter presents an overview of key terms and concepts, and a concluding chapter projects the world's urban future. Liberally illustrated with photographs, maps, and diagrams, the text also includes inset boxes to highlight key topics. Bibliographic sources, web sites, and an appendix of UN data provide additional resources for helping students understand more about the urban world. Editors and authors of Cities of the World, celebrating the publication of the third edition at AAG 03 in New Orleans. Standing from left to right are Maureen Hays-Mitchell, Jack Williams, Don Zeigler, Linda McCarthy, Larry Ford, Rina Ghose, Gary Elbow, Ashok Dutt, Stan Brunn, and George Pomeroy. Seated are Susan McEachern and Judy Walton. Contrary to popular belief, Stan is not emulating his hero, George Bush, but rather highlighting the truly global nature of the book by honoring contributions from the southern hemisphere.