CITY GOVERNANCE IN THE URBAN CENTURY 458 BUILT ENVIRONMENT VOL 40 NO 4 and will account for about 67 per cent of the world’s population (UN, 2011). Although this increase will not be evenly distributed across the globe, 86 per cent of the population in the more developed regions of the world and 64 per cent of that in less developed regions will be urban dwellers. Also, by 2050, 82 per cent of Europe’s popu- lation (UN, 2011) and 89 per cent of the US population will live in cities (University of Michigan, 2012). These projections suggest that the chal- lenge of urbanization will be one of increasing growth and, consequently, complexity, as Nij- kamp and Kourtit (2013) suggest. Yet, within the larger trend towards greater urban popu- lations, there are smaller subsets of cities on every continent that are growing slowly or declining, so-called shrinking cities In their recent article outlining a research and policy agenda for cities in Europe, Nijkamp and Kourtit (2013) argue that cities and urban regions are central to the future of the continent: The past centuries … have been characterized by a structural trend towards urbanization. It is noteworthy that not only has the number of cities increased rapidly, but also the size of cities. Our world gets more and bigger cities (the so-called ‘double urbanization’), with a tendency towards mega-cities. (Nijkamp and Kourtit, 2013, p. 293) This is consistent with predictions for global population growth and urbanization (see table 1). The United Nations calculates that between 2011 and 2050, the world’s popula- tion is projected to increase by 2.3 billion, while the population living in urban areas is projected to rise from 3.6 billion to 6.3 billion, Dealing with Decline in Old Industrial Cities in Europe and the United States: Problems and Policies SUJATA SHETTY AND NEIL REID Within the wider context of global population growth and increasing rates of urbanization are smaller subsets of cities on every continent that are losing population – so-called shrinking cities. In Europe and the United States, these cities are concentrated in, though not limited to, old industrial regions. Most of the research on shrinking cities has been at the scale of the individual city or region with very litle comparative work. This paper fills a gap in the literature by comparing the problems and urban planning responses in shrinking cities in Europe and the United States – the two parts of the world where shrinking cities are most prevalent – with a particular focus on old industrial cities. The paper focuses on three areas of comparison: the causes of population decline in these cities; the spatial and temporal paterns of decline; and the major elements of policy and planning responses to shrinking cities. Apart from some very broad similarities – population loss, economic decline and restructuring, and abandonment and vacancy – the story of shrinking cities is one of differences not just between Europe and the US, but within these regions as well.