In The Standard newspaper, Micheal DeGolyer writes:

Sometime next year the world will attain a landmark unprecedented in human history. According to demographers, the number of people living in areas classified as urban will exceed those living in places denoted rural. (Snip)

Rapid urbanization in China over the past decade has been a primary driver in this historic shift. China officially becomes a majority urban state about 2016, but its huge, rapidly growing unofficial urban "migrant" population means that date in reality looms much closer.

To read more:

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=5&art_id=25706&sid=9548458&con_type=1&d_str=20060824