It’s highly predictable, and in fact indisputable, that we are an urban species.

We began the transition from being peasants, married to the land, to cohabitants of urban agglomerations a long time ago.

Beginning around 1500, coexisting with close neighbors for mutual support started to become the norm for the wealthier denizens of our planet. The graph below shows which countries experienced urbanization first.

This graph shows the percentage of the total population living in cities across several European countries from roughly the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution.

You’ll note that the S curve of urbanization is the S curve of prosperity. The wealth of Northern Italy and the Netherlands in the Renaissance, followed by Portugal and Spain in the Age of Discovery, and then the British, French, and Germans in the Industrial Revolution, is reflected in the number of citizens living in cities. Wealth and urbanization go hand-in-hand.

You could even squint at the data and surmise that the city itself can be framed as an innovation—and that its adoption has been a preoccupation for various societies over many centuries.

Alas, like other technologies, cities are not evenly distributed. Not everyone has equal access to them all at once. There are, as this next graph shows, early, mid, and late adopters…

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