Urban Population Share by Country, Historical Data 1960-2024

About This Dataset

Urban Population Share by Country, Historical Data 1960-2024
The share of each country population living in urban areas at six points from 1960 to 2024, using World Bank data. The spread between countries has narrowed sharply: the gap between the most and least urban country in this group was 64.4 percentage points in 1960 and is 56.8 points in 2024.
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South Korea urbanised faster than any other country here, from 27.7 percent in 1960 to 81.2 percent in 2024 - a gain of 53.5 points. Nigeria added 48.8 points and China 46.2, with China passing the halfway mark between 2010 and 2020. The already-urban countries barely moved: the United States went from 70.0 to 80.1 percent across 64 years, and the United Kingdom from 78.6 to 83.2. India is the outlier at the bottom, still only 35.4 percent urban in 2024 after adding 17.5 points since 1960. The smallest gains belong to the countries that were already urban in 1960: the United Kingdom added 4.6 points and Germany 6.3.

Source:  World Bank Open Data

Key Findings

Auto-computed highlights from this dataset

🏆
Japan leads with 92 in 2024.
📈
Nigeria grew fastest: +343.7% from 1960 to 2024 (14.20 → 63).
📊
Average value in 2024: 74  ·  median: 80.
📅
2024 recorded the highest combined total across all categories.
↔️
Gap in 2024: Japan is 2.6× larger than India.

Urban Population Share by Country, Historical Data 1960-2024

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Data Insights

Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart

Admin
⬡
Data Points
72
12 categories  ·  6 years
↑
Top Value
92.20
Japan
Urban Population (% of total) · 2024
◈
Metrics
1
Urban Population (% of total)
◷
Period
1960 – 2024
6 years of data

Rankings & Full Data

72 records · Urban Population (% of total) · ranked by 2024

✓ 72 sourced
# Category 1960 1980 2000 2010 2020 2024 Change CAGR / yr Source
🥇 Japan 63.30 76.20 78.60 90.60 91.80 92.20 +45.7% +0.6%
🥈 Brazil 44.70 67.40 81.10 84.30 86.90 87.90 +96.6% +1.1%
🥉 United Kingdom 78.60 78.60 79.80 81 82.90 83.20 +5.9% +0.1%
4 Germany 75.70 79.90 80.10 80.30 81.50 82 +8.3% +0.1%
5 South Korea 27.70 56.70 79.60 82 81.20 81.20 +193.1% +1.7%
6 United States 70 73.80 79.10 80.70 80 80.10 +14.4% +0.2%
7 Mexico 50.70 66.30 74.90 76.50 78.70 79.80 +57.4% +0.7%
8 Russia 54.10 69.90 73.20 73.70 74.70 75.10 +38.8% +0.5%
9 China 19.70 19.40 36.40 49.20 63.50 65.90 +234.5% +1.9%
10 Nigeria 14.20 27.40 43.30 51.70 59.80 63 +343.7% +2.4%
11 Indonesia 14.60 22.10 42 49.90 56.30 58.80 +302.7% +2.2%
12 India 17.90 23.50 27.60 30.90 34.10 35.40 +97.8% +1.1%

Data Sources & References

All external sources cited in this dataset

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