Lagos, Nigeria
Predicted increase in population by 2025: 5.23 million
Lagos piggybacks on the trend of many rapidly urbanizing cities in developing nations. As Nigeria's urban center and wealthiest city, Lagos is experiencing a booming population as rural citizens migrate to the city in search of better opportunities. They'll find capitalism — along with a host of civic problems. Trash is a chronic issue for Lagos, and in an attempt to curb the rampant mounds of burning garbage in the city, the sanitation department pays scavengers for each pound of trash they collect. But the city government is too focused on Westernizing to make great strides for the commoners. While politicians jockey to develop the disconnected island that holds the financial center of Lagos, the Guardian writes that from space, the whole of Lagos looks "like a giant sack of flour that has been dropped on the hard floor of the Atlantic coast, split open." Roads sprout from the capital for dozens of miles to the outer reaches of the city, causing frequent hours-long traffic jams that will only worsen as an increasing number of residents commute to and from the city each day. Lagos still fears building up because of frequent power outages, but with foreign investment in the nation's oil reserves, a future in which the country can afford to upgrade its crumbling infrastructure and provide stability to its ever growing population is hopefully on the horizon.