Urban population

Share of people living in areas their country counts as urban.

measured by: World Bank
originally from: UN Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects
years covered: 1960–2025
subject: Society

Neither end of this scale is better. It is context, not a score.

How this is measured

The definition of "urban" is each country’s own, and they differ enormously — some use a population threshold of 200, others of 50,000, others administrative status. That makes the trend within a country reliable and comparisons between two countries much less so.

Highest first for 2025

170 countries and territories have a figure for 2025. This is the most recent year the series covers well; the viewer holds every year from 1960.

#	Country	Region	Urban
1	Kuwait	Middle East & North Africa	100.0%
2	Qatar	Middle East & North Africa	99.4%
3	Netherlands	Europe	95.9%
4	Uruguay	Americas	95.7%
5	Luxembourg	Europe	94.9%
6	Puerto Rico	Americas	94.3%
7	Iceland	Europe	94.2%
8	Jordan	Middle East & North Africa	93.2%
9	Argentina	Americas	92.4%
10	Japan	Asia-Pacific	92.3%
11	Gabon	Sub-Saharan Africa	92.1%
12	Israel	Middle East & North Africa	91.6%
13	Lebanon	Middle East & North Africa	91.0%
14	Turkey	Eurasia	89.5%
15	Venezuela	Americas	89.3%
16	Chile	Americas	89.2%
17	Sweden	Europe	89.1%
18	Denmark	Europe	88.8%
19	Greenland	Americas	88.6%
20	Brazil	Americas	88.2%
21	Libya	Middle East & North Africa	87.9%
22	Australia	Asia-Pacific	87.7%
23	Belgium	Europe	87.7%
24	Palestine	Middle East & North Africa	87.4%
25	United Arab Emirates	Middle East & North Africa	86.0%
26	Switzerland	Europe	85.7%
27	Peru	Americas	85.6%
28	Saudi Arabia	Middle East & North Africa	84.6%
29	New Zealand	Asia-Pacific	84.0%
30	Norway	Europe	83.6%
31	United Kingdom	Europe	83.3%
32	Canada	Americas	82.9%
33	Germany	Europe	82.1%
34	Bahamas	Americas	81.3%
35	South Korea	Asia-Pacific	81.2%
36	Spain	Europe	80.5%
37	United States	Americas	80.2%
38	Mexico	Americas	80.0%
39	Costa Rica	Americas	79.7%
40	Belarus	Eurasia	79.5%
41	Oman	Middle East & North Africa	79.5%
42	Greece	Europe	79.2%
43	France	Europe	78.8%
44	Colombia	Americas	78.8%
45	Malaysia	Asia-Pacific	77.4%
46	Iran	Middle East & North Africa	77.4%
47	Cuba	Americas	77.2%
48	Algeria	Middle East & North Africa	75.8%
49	El Salvador	Americas	75.5%
50	Russia	Eurasia	75.3%
51	Brunei	Asia-Pacific	75.0%
52	Finland	Europe	74.5%
53	Bulgaria	Europe	74.2%
54	Djibouti	Sub-Saharan Africa	73.0%
55	Czechia	Europe	72.9%
56	Dominican Republic	Americas	72.5%
57	Syria	Middle East & North Africa	72.1%
58	Equatorial Guinea	Sub-Saharan Africa	71.6%
59	Bolivia	Americas	71.6%
60	Angola	Sub-Saharan Africa	71.5%
61	Mongolia	Asia-Pacific	71.1%
62	Estonia	Europe	70.7%
63	Tunisia	Middle East & North Africa	70.7%
64	Hungary	Europe	70.7%
65	Paraguay	Americas	70.4%
66	Iraq	Middle East & North Africa	69.9%
67	Austria	Europe	69.7%
68	Italy	Europe	69.7%
69	Ukraine	Eurasia	69.6%
70	Lithuania	Europe	69.1%
71	Latvia	Europe	68.6%
72	New Caledonia	Asia-Pacific	68.2%
73	Botswana	Sub-Saharan Africa	68.0%
74	Nepal	Asia-Pacific	67.0%
75	Cyprus	Europe	66.7%
76	China	Asia-Pacific	66.3%
77	Panama	Americas	66.2%
78	Armenia	Eurasia	65.9%
79	Suriname	Americas	65.8%
80	Montenegro	Europe	65.6%
81	Gambia	Sub-Saharan Africa	65.0%
82	Ireland	Europe	64.6%
83	North Korea	Asia-Pacific	64.2%
84	Congo	Sub-Saharan Africa	64.1%
85	South Africa	Sub-Saharan Africa	63.8%
86	Nigeria	Sub-Saharan Africa	63.8%
87	Ecuador	Americas	63.4%
88	Morocco	Middle East & North Africa	63.1%
89	North Macedonia	Europe	62.9%
90	Thailand	Asia-Pacific	62.8%
91	Serbia	Europe	62.6%
92	Kazakhstan	Eurasia	62.4%
93	Portugal	Europe	61.5%
94	Mauritania	Sub-Saharan Africa	61.5%
95	Georgia	Eurasia	61.2%
96	Poland	Europe	60.1%
97	Fiji	Asia-Pacific	59.5%
98	Nicaragua	Americas	59.4%
99	Jamaica	Americas	59.4%
100	Indonesia	Asia-Pacific	59.4%
101	Honduras	Americas	59.3%
102	Ghana	Sub-Saharan Africa	58.9%
103	Albania	Europe	58.9%
104	Azerbaijan	Eurasia	58.6%
105	Croatia	Europe	57.8%
106	Guatemala	Americas	56.3%
107	Liberia	Sub-Saharan Africa	56.1%
108	Slovenia	Europe	56.0%
109	Philippines	Asia-Pacific	55.8%
110	Senegal	Sub-Saharan Africa	55.8%
111	Cameroon	Sub-Saharan Africa	55.7%
112	Haiti	Americas	55.6%
113	Somalia	Sub-Saharan Africa	55.1%
114	Côte d'Ivoire	Sub-Saharan Africa	54.5%
115	Trinidad and Tobago	Americas	54.0%
116	Benin	Sub-Saharan Africa	53.4%
117	Slovakia	Europe	53.2%
118	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Europe	52.7%
119	Romania	Europe	52.2%
120	Uzbekistan	Eurasia	51.0%
121	Kosovo	Europe	50.9%
122	Namibia	Sub-Saharan Africa	50.9%
123	Turkmenistan	Eurasia	47.1%
124	Guinea-Bissau	Sub-Saharan Africa	46.7%
125	Sierra Leone	Sub-Saharan Africa	45.9%
126	Zambia	Sub-Saharan Africa	45.9%
127	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Sub-Saharan Africa	45.1%
128	Lesotho	Sub-Saharan Africa	44.7%
129	Central African Republic	Sub-Saharan Africa	44.6%
130	Togo	Sub-Saharan Africa	44.4%
131	Moldova	Eurasia	43.7%
132	Bhutan	Asia-Pacific	43.4%
133	Egypt	Middle East & North Africa	42.9%
134	Belize	Americas	41.6%
135	Cambodia	Asia-Pacific	41.1%
136	Zimbabwe	Sub-Saharan Africa	40.5%
137	Laos	Asia-Pacific	40.3%
138	Pakistan	Asia-Pacific	39.5%
139	Vietnam	Asia-Pacific	38.8%
140	Guinea	Sub-Saharan Africa	38.5%
141	Mozambique	Sub-Saharan Africa	37.2%
142	Yemen	Middle East & North Africa	37.0%
143	Tanzania	Sub-Saharan Africa	36.9%
144	India	Asia-Pacific	35.7%
145	Sudan	Sub-Saharan Africa	34.9%
146	Kyrgyzstan	Eurasia	34.7%
147	Eritrea	Sub-Saharan Africa	34.5%
148	Bangladesh	Asia-Pacific	33.2%
149	Madagascar	Sub-Saharan Africa	32.9%
150	Mali	Sub-Saharan Africa	32.2%
151	Kenya	Sub-Saharan Africa	32.2%
152	Uganda	Sub-Saharan Africa	31.9%
153	Solomon Islands	Asia-Pacific	31.3%
154	Rwanda	Sub-Saharan Africa	30.9%
155	Myanmar	Asia-Pacific	30.6%
156	Burkina Faso	Sub-Saharan Africa	28.9%
157	Timor-Leste	Asia-Pacific	28.8%
158	Chad	Sub-Saharan Africa	27.6%
159	Eswatini	Sub-Saharan Africa	26.7%
160	Guyana	Americas	26.5%
161	Tajikistan	Eurasia	26.2%
162	Afghanistan	Asia-Pacific	25.9%
163	Burundi	Sub-Saharan Africa	25.7%
164	Ethiopia	Sub-Saharan Africa	24.1%
165	Vanuatu	Asia-Pacific	22.3%
166	South Sudan	Sub-Saharan Africa	21.7%
167	Sri Lanka	Asia-Pacific	20.5%
168	Niger	Sub-Saharan Africa	18.4%
169	Malawi	Sub-Saharan Africa	17.6%
170	Papua New Guinea	Asia-Pacific	15.8%

Data by year

Show 66 yearly JSON rankings

Follow a year link to open the complete world ranking, including country names, values, positions, source and licence.

Source and licence

World Bank — World Development Indicators

CC BY 4.0. World Bank, World Development Indicators How every source was checked

Other society statistics

Human Development Index Life expectancy Adult literacy Secondary school enrolment Government spending on education Health spending Health costs paid out of pocket Maternal mortality Women in parliament Women in the workforce Fertility rate Refugees who left Population