List of countries by urbanization

Countries by degree of urbanization, 2018

The list of countries by urbanization sorts countries according to the proportion of the population in urban areas ( urbanization rate ). The definition of urban areas comes from the World Urbanization Prospects of the United Nations and is mostly based on national statistics. In general, an agglomeration of more than 10,000 inhabitants is considered urban. In 2018, 55.3% of the world's population lived in cities. The rate of urbanization can be an indicator of a country's industrialization .

list

Countries and territories sorted by urbanization rate. The source is the World Bank .

rank	country	Urbanization rate in % of the total population	year
1	Bermuda	100%	2018
1	Cayman Islands	100%	2018
1	Gibraltar	100%	2018
1	Hong Kong	100%	2018
1	Macau	100%	2018
1	Monaco	100%	2018
1	Singapore	100%	2018
1	Nauru	100%	2018
1	Kuwait	100%	2018
10	Qatar	99.1%	2018
11	Belgium	98.0%	2018
12	San Marino	97.2%	2018
13	Malta	94.5%	2018
14th	American Virgin Islands	95.7%	2018
15th	Uruguay	95.3%	2018
16	Guam	94.8%	2018
17th	Iceland	93.8%	2018
18th	Puerto Rico	93.6%	2018
19th	Israel	92.4%	2018
20th	Argentina	91.9%	2018
21st	Japan	91.6%	2018
22nd	Netherlands	91.5%	2018
23	Luxembourg	91.0%	2018
24	Jordan	91.0%	2018
25th	Gabon	89.4%	2018
26th	Bahrain	89.3%	2018
27	Lebanon	88.6%	2018
28	Venezuela	88.2%	2018
29	Andorra	88.1%	2018
30th	Chile	87.6%	2018
31	Denmark	87.9%	2018
32	Sweden	87.4%	2018
33	Greenland	86.8%	2018
34	Brazil	86.6%	2018
35	New Zealand	86.5%	2018
36	United Arab Emirates	86.5%	2018
37	Australia	86.0%	2018
38	Finland	85.4%	2018
39	Oman	84.5%	2018
40	Saudi Arabia	83.8%	2018
41	United Kingdom	83.4%	2018
42	Bahamas	83.0%	2018
43	United States	82.3%	2018
44	Norway	82.2%	2018
45	South Korea	81.5%	2018
46	Canada	81.4%	2018
47	Dominican Republic	81.1%	2018
48	Colombia	80.8%	2018
49	France	80.4%	2018
50	Spain	80.3%	2018
51	Mexico	80.2%	2018
52	Libya	80.1%	2018
53	Costa Rica	79.3%	2018
54	Greece	79.1%	2018
55	Belarus	78.6%	2018
56	Peru	77.9%	2018
57	Djibouti	77.8%	2018
58	Brunei	77.6%	2018
59	Germany	77.3%	2018
60	Cuba	77.0%	2018
61	Marshall Islands	77.0%	2018
62	Palestine	76.2%	2018
63	Malaysia	76.0%	2018
64	Turkey	75.1%	2018
65	Bulgaria	75.0%	2018
66	Iran	75.0%	2018
67	Russia	74.4%	2018
68	Switzerland	73.8%	2018
69	Czech Republic	73.8%	2018
70	Sao Tome and Principe	72.8%	2018
71	Algeria	72.6%	2018
72	Equatorial Guinea	72.1%	2018
73	El Salvador	72.0%	2018
74	Hungary	71.4%	2018
75	Iraq	70.5%	2018
76	Italy	70.4%	2018
77	Botswana	69.4%	2018
78	Ukraine	69.4%	2018
79	Bolivia	69.4%	2018
80	Estonia	68.9%	2018
81	Tunisia	68.9%	2018
82	Mongolia	68.4%	2018
83	Latvia	68.1%	2018
84	Lithuania	67.8%	2018
85	Panama	67.7%	2018
86	Republic of the Congo	66.9%	2018
87	Cyprus	66.8%	2018
88	Montenegro	66.8%	2018
89	South Africa	66.4%	2018
90	Suriname	66.1%	2018
91	Cape Verde	65.7%	2018
92	Angola	65.5%	2018
93	Portugal	65.2%	2018
94	Ecuador	63.8%	2018
95	Ireland	63.2%	2018
96	Armenia	63.1%	2018
97	Morocco	62.5%	2018
98	North Korea	61.9%	2018
99	Paraguay	61.6%	2018
100	Gambia	61.3%	2018
101	Albania	60.3%	2018
102	Poland	60.1%	2018
103	People's Republic of China	59.2%	2018
104	Georgia	58.6%	2018
105	Nicaragua	58.5%	2018
106	Austria	58.3%	2018
107	North Macedonia	58.0%	2018
108	Kazakhstan	57.4%	2018
109	Honduras	57.1%	2018
110	Croatia	56.9%	2018
111	Seychelles	56.7%	2018
112	Cameroon	56.4%	2018
113	Fiji	56.2%	2018
114	Serbia	56.1%	2018
115	Ghana	56.1%	2018
116	Jamaica	55.7%	2018
117	Azerbaijan	55.7%	2018
118	Haiti	55.3%	2018
119	Indonesia	55.3%	2018
120	Slovenia	54.5%	2018
121	Syria	54.2%	2018
122	Romania	54.0%	2018
123	Mauritania	53.7%	2018
124	Slovakia	53.7%	2018
125	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	52.2%	2018
126	Turkmenistan	51.6%	2018
127	Liberia	51.2%	2018
128	Guatemala	51.1%	2018
129	Ivory Coast	50.8%	2018
130	Uzbekistan	50.5%	2018
131	Nigeria	50.3%	2018
132	Namibia	50.0%	2018
133	Thailand	49.9%	2018
134	Bosnia and Herzegovina	48.2%	2018
135	Benin	47.3%	2018
136	Senegal	47.2%	2018
137	Philippines	46.9%	2018
138	Belize	45.7%	2018
139	Somalia	45.0%	2018
140	Democratic Republic of Congo	44.5%	2018
141	Zambia	43.5%	2018
142	Guinea-Bissau	43.4%	2018
143	Egypt	42.7%	2018
144	Moldova	42.6%	2018
145	Mali	42.4%	2018
146	Faroe Islands	42.1%	2018
147	Sierra Leone	42.1%	2018
148	Togo	41.7%	2018
149	Central African Republic	41.4%	2018
150	Bhutan	40.9%	2018
151	Mauritius	40.8%	2018
152	Maldives	39.8%	2018
153	Madagascar	37.2%	2018
154	Pakistan	36.7%	2018
155	Yemen	36.6%	2018
156	Bangladesh	36.6%	2018
157	Kyrgyzstan	36.4%	2018
158	Guinea	36.1%	2018
159	Mozambique	36.0%	2018
160	Vietnam	35.9%	2018
161	Eritrea	35.7%	2011
162	Laos	35.0%	2018
163	Sudan	34.6%	2018
164	India	34.0%	2018
165	Tanzania	33.8%	2018
166	Zimbabwe	32.2%	2018
167	Barbados	31.1%	2018
168	St. Kitts and Nevis	30.8%	2018
169	Myanmar	30.6%	2018
170	East Timor	30.6%	2018
171	Burkina Faso	29.4%	2018
172	Comoros	29.0%	2018
173	Lesotho	28.2%	2018
174	Tajikistan	27.1%	2018
175	Kenya	27.0%	2018
176	Guyana	26.6%	2018
177	Afghanistan	25.5%	2018
178	Vanuatu	25.3%	2018
179	Swaziland	23.8%	2018
180	Uganda	23.8%	2018
181	Solomon Islands	23.7%	2018
182	Cambodia	23.4%	2018
183	Tonga	23.1%	2018
184	Chad	23.1%	2018
185	Micronesia	22.7%	2018
186	Ethiopia	20.8%	2018
187	South Sudan	19.6%	2018
188	Nepal	19.4%	2018
189	Sri Lanka	18.5%	2018
190	Samoa	18.2%	2018
191	Rwanda	17.2%	2018
192	Malawi	16.9%	2018
193	Niger	16.4%	2018
194	Liechtenstein	14.3%	2018
195	Papua New Guinea	13.2%	2018
196	Burundi	13.0%	2018
	World average	55.3%	2018

Development of urbanization over time

The following list shows the development of the urbanization rate in various countries since 1960.

country	Urbanization 1960 in%	Urbanization 1970 in%	Urbanization 1980 in%	Urbanization 1990 in%	Urbanization 2000 in%	Urbanization 2010 in%	Urbanization 2018 in%
Singapore	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%
Hong Kong	85.2%	87.7%	91.5%	99.5%	100%	100%	100%
Qatar	85.3%	88.3%	89.4%	92.8%	96.3%	98.7%	99.1%
Belgium	92.5%	93.8%	95.4%	96.4%	97.1%	97.6%	98.0%
Israel	76.8%	84.2%	88.6%	90.4%	91.2%	91.8%	92.2%
Argentina	72.6%	78.9%	82.9%	87.0%	89.1%	91.0%	91.9%
Japan	63.3%	71.9%	76.2%	77.3%	78.6%	90.8%	91.6%
Netherlands	59.7%	61.7%	64.7%	68.7%	76.8%	87.0%	91.5%
Venezuela	61.6%	71.8%	79.0%	84.3%	88.0%	88.8%	88.2%
Chile	67.8%	75.2%	81.2%	83.3%	86.1%	88.6%	87.6%
Australia	81.5%	85.3%	85.8%	85.4%	84.2%	85.2%	86.0%
Denmark	73.7%	79.7%	83.7%	84.8%	85.1%	86.8%	87.9%
Sweden	72.5%	81.0%	83.1%	83.1%	84.0%	85.1%	87.4%
Brazil	46.1%	55.9%	65.5%	73.9%	81.2%	84.3%	86.6%
New Zealand	76.0%	81.1%	83.4%	84.7%	85.7%	86.2%	86.5%
United Arab Emirates	73.5%	79.8%	80.7%	79.0%	80.2%	84.1%	86.5%
Oman	16.4%	29.7%	47.6%	66.1%	71.6%	75.2%	84.5%
Saudi Arabia	31.3%	48.7%	65.9%	76.6%	79.8%	82.1%	83.8%
United Kingdom	78.4%	77.1%	78.5%	78.1%	78.7%	81.3%	83.4%
United States	70.0%	73.6%	73.7%	75.3%	79.1%	80.7%	82.3%
Norway	49.9%	65.4%	70.5%	72.0%	76.1%	79.1%	82.2%
South Korea	27.7%	40.7%	56.7%	73.8%	79.6%	81.9%	81.5%
Canada	69.0%	75.7%	75.7%	76.6%	79.5%	80.9%	81.4%
Colombia	45.0%	54.8%	62.1%	68.3%	72.1%	75.0%	80.8%
France	61.9%	71.1%	73.3%	74.1%	75.9%	78.3%	80.4%
Spain	56.6%	66.0%	72.8%	75.4%	76.3%	78.4%	80.3%
Mexico	50.8%	59.0%	66.3%	71.4%	74.7%	77.8%	80.2%
Greece	55.9%	64.2%	69.3%	71.5%	72.7%	76.3%	79.1%
Peru	46.8%	57.4%	64.6%	68.9%	73.0%	76.9%	77.9%
Germany	71.4%	72.3%	72.8%	73.1%	75.0%	77.0%	77.3%
Cuba	58.4%	60.3%	68.1%	73.4%	75.3%	76.6%	77.0%
Malaysia	26.6%	33.5%	42.0%	49.8%	62.0%	70.9%	76.0%
Turkey	31.5%	38.2%	43.8%	59.2%	64.7%	70.8%	75.1%
Iran	33.7%	41.2%	49.7%	56.3%	64.0%	70.6%	75.0%
Russia	53.7%	62.5%	69.8%	73.4%	73.4%	73.7%	74.4%
Switzerland	51.0%	57.4%	57.1%	73.2%	73.3%	73.6%	73.8%
Czech Republic	59.5%	64.4%	75.2%	75.2%	73.9%	73.3%	73.8%
Algeria	30.5%	39.5%	43.5%	52.1%	59.9%	67.5%	72.6%
Iraq	42.9%	56.2%	65.5%	69.7%	68.5%	69.0%	70.5%
Italy	59.4%	64.3%	66.6%	66.7%	67.2%	68.3%	70.4%
Botswana	3.1%	7.8%	16.5%	41.9%	53.2%	62.4%	69.4%
Ukraine	46.8%	54.8%	61.7%	66.8%	67.1%	68.7%	69.4%
South Africa	46.6%	47.8%	48.4%	52.0%	56.9%	62.2%	66.4%
Portugal	35.0%	38.8%	42.8%	47.9%	54.4%	60.6%	65.2%
Ireland	45.8%	51.7%	55.3%	56.9%	59.1%	61.8%	63.2%
Morocco	29.4%	34.5%	41.2%	48.4%	53.3%	57.7%	62.5%
Poland	47.9%	52.1%	58.1%	61.3%	61.7%	60.9%	60.1%
People's Republic of China	16.2%	17.4%	19.4%	26.4%	35.9%	49.2%	59.2%
Austria	64.7%	65.3%	65.4%	63.0%	60.2%	57.4%	58.3%
Ghana	23.3%	29.0%	31.2%	36.4%	43.9%	50.7%	56.1%
Indonesia	14.6%	17.0%	22.1%	30.6%	42.0%	49.9%	55.3%
Romania	34.2%	40.3%	46.1%	53.2%	53.0%	53.8%	54.0%
Nigeria	15.4%	17.8%	22.0%	29.7%	34.8%	43.5%	50.3%
Thailand	19.7%	20.9%	26.8%	29.4%	31.4%	44.1%	49.9%
Senegal	23.0%	30.0%	35.8%	38.9%	40.3%	42.2%	47.2%
Philippines	30.3%	33.0%	37.5%	48.6%	48.0%	45.3%	46.9%
Democratic Republic of Congo	22.3%	24.6%	27.0%	30.6%	35.1%	39.9%	44.5%
Egypt	37.9%	41.5%	43.9%	43.5%	43.8%	43.0%	42.7%
Pakistan	22.1%	24.8%	28.1%	30.6%	33.0%	35.0%	36.7%
Bangladesh	5.1%	7.6%	14.9%	19.8%	23.6%	30.5%	36.6%
Vietnam	14.7%	18.3%	19.2%	20.3%	24.4%	30.4%	35.9%
Sudan	10.7%	16.5%	20.0%	28.6%	32.5%	33.1%	34.6%
India	17.9%	19.8%	23.1%	25.5%	27.7%	30.9%	34.0%
Tanzania	5.2%	7.9%	14.6%	18.9%	22.3%	28.1%	33.8%
Kenya	7.4%	10.3%	15.6%	16.8%	19.9%	23.6%	27.0%
Afghanistan	8.4%	11.6%	16.0%	18.3%	22.1%	23.7%	25.5%
Ethiopia	6.4%	8.6%	10.4%	12.6%	14.7%	17.3%	20.8%
World average	33.6%	36.5%	39.3%	42.9%	46.5%	51.6%	55.3%

Top 50 countries by total city population

The first 50 countries by number of urban residents and urban population growth rate.

rank	country	Urban population (2018)	Growth (2018)
1	People's Republic of China	823,828,000	+ 2.5%
2	India	460,296,000	+ 2.3%
3	United States	269,115,000	+ 0.9%
4th	Brazil	181,336,000	+1.1%
5	Indonesia	148,085,000	+ 2.5%
6th	Japan	115,921,000	−0.1%
7th	Russia	107,539,000	+ 0.2%
8th	Mexico	101,149,000	+1.5%
9	Nigeria	98,611,000	+ 4.2%
10	Pakistan	77,811,000	+ 2.7%
11	Germany	64,113,000	+ 0.4%
12	Turkey	61,858,000	+ 2.2%
13	Iran	61,267,000	+ 2.1%
14th	Bangladesh	59,108,000	+ 3.2%
15th	United Kingdom	55,450,000	+1.0%
16	France	53,887,000	+ 0.5%
17th	Philippines	50,027,000	+1.9%
18th	Italy	42,567,000	+ 0.2%
19th	South Korea	42,062,000	+ 0.3%
20th	Egypt	42,031,000	+ 2.0%
21st	Argentina	40,877,000	+1.1%
22nd	Colombia	40,105,000	+1.9%
23	South Africa	38,340,000	+ 2.1%
24	Spain	37,529,000	+ 0.6%
25th	Democratic Republic of Congo	37,377,000	+ 4.5%
26th	Thailand	34,679,000	+1.8%
27	Vietnam	34,317,000	+ 3.0%
28	Ukraine	30,947,000	−0.3%
29	Algeria	30,670,000	+ 2.8%
30th	Canada	30,170,000	+1.5%
31	Saudi Arabia	28,255,000	+ 2.1%
32	Iraq	27,085,000	+ 2.6%
33	Venezuela	25,466,000	−1.8%
34	Peru	24,922,000	+ 2.0%
35	Malaysia	23,973,000	+ 2.1%
36	Poland	22,809,000	−0.1%
37	Ethiopia	22,679,000	+ 4.8%
38	Morocco	22,501,000	+ 2.1%
39	Australia	21,496,000	+1.7%
40	Angola	20,185,000	+ 4.3%
41	Tanzania	19,022,000	+ 5.1%
42	Ghana	16,687,000	+ 3.4%
43	Uzbekistan	16,635,000	+1.6%
44	Myanmar	16,423,000	+1.5%
45	Chile	16,400,000	+1.5%
46	North Korea	15,815,000	+ 0.8%
47	Netherlands	15,765,000	+1.0%
48	Sudan	14,481,000	+ 3.2%
49	Cameroon	14,215,000	+ 3.7%
50	Kenya	13,892,000	+ 4.1%

See also

• urbanization
• List of the largest metropolitan areas in the world
• Urban geography
• Urbanism
• urbanity

Web links

• World Urbanization Prospects 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Definition of »urbanization« | Gabler Economic Lexicon . ( gabler.de [accessed on July 16, 2017]).
2. ↑ Urban population (% of total) | Data. Retrieved July 16, 2017 (American English). 
3. ↑ Urban population | Data. Retrieved July 18, 2017 (American English). 
4. ↑ Urban population growth (annual%) | Data. Retrieved July 18, 2017 (American English).