Most Urbanised Countries in the World 2024

About This Dataset

Countries ranked by urban population (% of total) in 2024, using World Bank figures for the 217 countries that reported that year. Twelve countries share the top place on 100.0, among them Bahrain, Bermuda and Cayman Islands, ahead of Qatar (99.3). The share of the population living in areas each country defines as urban. There is no common international definition, so a country's threshold affects its position.

Analysis

Twelve of the twenty shown are level at the top on 100.0: Bahrain, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Macau, Monaco, Nauru, Singapore, Sint Maarten, Saint Martin. The first country below them is Qatar on 99.3. Across the twenty shown, values run from 100.0 down to 94.3, a spread of 5.7. Of the 20 in this table that also reported in 2023, 5 recorded a higher figure than the year before and 0 a lower one. The largest single move was Netherlands, from 95.3 to 95.6. The chart shows the twenty highest of 217 reporting countries, so it describes the top of the distribution rather than the world average.

Source: World Bank

Key Findings

🏆

Bahrain, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and 9 others are level at the top on 100 Urban Population (% of Total) in 2024.

📊

Average Urban Population (% of Total) in 2024: 98 · median: 100.

↔️

Gap in 2024: Bahrain is 1.1× larger than Puerto Rico (US).