China builds more houses in 12 years than there are in all of the U.K.
The growth rates in this article published by New Republic on Chinese megacities seem quite unbelievable: In 12 Years, China Built More Houses Than There Are In All of the U.K. Take the example of Shenzhen growing to 12 million people in 30 years from a cluster of small fishing villages. This gives a compound growth rate of 20% per year, assuming a starting base of 50,000 people.