Urban Informality: Global and Regional Trends

This working paper is an introduction to urban informality in the Latin American and Caribbean region as part of a larger comparative analysis on informal settlements in the region. Based on recent reports published by multilateral agencies, international organizations, and national governments, this paper offers a compendium of the presented figures on informal employment, slums dwellers, and housing conditions at global and national levels. This enabled some comparative analyses on informal economy and informal settlements among LAC countries. Results suggest that the informal economy in the LAC region is significant, representing about 50 percent of total workers in many countries. Likewise, the LAC region is one of the most urbanized in the world, however, it has a high rate of urban informal economy with a ‘persistent’ urban population living in informal settlements