Demographic and employment change in megacities of South-East and East Asia

Abstract

This study examines the growth of population and the changing structure of employment in four megacities in South-East and East Asia: Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila and Taipei over the 1980-1990 period. As all these megacities have influenced the population and employment structure in a region extending well beyond their official boundaries, three zones are defined for each megacity: the metropolitan core, and an inner and an outer ring. The metropolitan core in each case is the officially defined metropolitan area. Addition of the two rings approximately doubles the population under consideration, to almost 16 million each in the cases of Jakarta and Manila. The inner ring is the zone of greatest change. It has received net migration from both the metropolitan core and from other parts of the country. Its employment structure has changed the most dramatically, because of location of many factories and other economic enterprises outside the metropolitan boundaries, and also because of the growth of housing estates, many of whose residents commute to work in the city core. The study concludes that studies of demographic and employment change in major metropolitan areas are enriched by the adoption of a zonal perspective.