Measuring change and location of informal settlements at a national level: The Argentinian case

Today, there is a consensus that informal settlements continue to expand in both area and population. These settlements are often associated with large cities, such as Dharavi in Mumbai and Kibera in Nairobi. However, secondary cities, rather than megacities, are the epicenters of population growth and urban expansion. The lack of reliable and consistent data, both globally and nationally, has hindered accurate measurement of whether informal settlements are also growing rapidly in secondary cities. This research project analyzes the growth rates of informal settlement areas and populations in Argentina at the national scale from 2016 to 2023, using RENABAP's quantitative and qualitative survey data combined with Earth Observation-based data. We found that the entire sample of informal settlements in Argentina continues to grow at an annual rate of 1.79%. More importantly, informal areas are more prominent and expanding at a larger scale in the less populated cities of the country. Our study confirms, at a national scale, that secondary and smaller cities have a higher number of informal settlements and faster growth rates than primary and larger cities. The scale of this difference should be alarming, prompting a reevaluation of how this compares to global trends in informal settlements. This is fundamental for allocating resources and shaping urban policy globally, especially to meet the needs of informal dwellers.