Urban population (share of people) over time (1960–2025)

Follow urban population (share of people) for the world’s countries, year by year, from 1960 to 2025.

In 1960, 3 countries tied for first (100.0%).
In 2025, 5 countries tied for first (100.0%).
Japan’s urban population (share of people) went from 63.3% in 1960 to 92.3% in 2025 (up 29 points).
Japan ranked #23 of 193 countries in 1960 and #15 of 193 in 2025.

Japan and countries at the top, middle and bottom

Key years for Japan and countries at the top, middle and bottom of the 2025 ranking
Country	1960	1970	1980	1990	2000	2010	2020	2025
Bahrain	82.3%	78.3%	80.4%	88.1%	87.8%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Japan	63.3%	71.9%	76.2%	77.3%	78.6%	90.6%	91.8%	92.3%
France	61.7%	71.4%	73.2%	74.1%	76.5%	77.1%	78.7%	78.8%
Kiribati	15.2%	24.5%	32.4%	35.0%	43.3%	48.5%	58.4%	63.4%
Egypt	37.8%	42.6%	43.9%	43.6%	42.7%	42.9%	42.5%	42.9%
Liechtenstein	20.4%	18.4%	18.3%	16.9%	15.0%	14.4%	14.7%	14.6%
Countries with data	193	193	193	193	193	193	193	193

Ranking and map for any year

Choose a year to see that year’s top countries and the world map. Colors split that year’s ranking into seven steps.

2025


Rank	Country	Urban population (share of people)

Biggest changes, 1960–2025

Compared among the countries that have data in both 1960 and 2025. Countries with a very small starting value are left out, because their ratios look exaggerated.

Biggest increases
Country	1960	2025	Change	Rank
Gabon	12.6%	92.1%	up 79.5 points	#152 → #16
Cape Verde	6.5%	77.6%	up 71.1 points	#176 → #51
Türkiye	23.4%	89.5%	up 66.1 points	#116 → #19
Botswana	3.0%	68.0%	up 65 points	#189 → #81
Libya	23.3%	87.9%	up 64.6 points	#120 → #26

Biggest decreases
Country	1960	2025	Change	Rank
Antigua & Barbuda	39.6%	24.3%	down 15.2 points	#72 → #182
Belize	53.9%	41.6%	down 12.3 points	#40 → #147
Tajikistan	33.4%	26.2%	down 7.2 points	#92 → #179
Liechtenstein	20.4%	14.6%	down 5.8 points	#126 → #193
Guyana	29.0%	26.5%	down 2.5 points	#107 → #178

All countries in key years

Open the table (countries with data)

Key years for Japan and the leading countries in 2025
Country	1960	1970	1980	1990	2000	2010	2020	2025
Bahrain	82.3%	78.3%	80.4%	88.1%	87.8%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Kuwait	75.4%	80.5%	94.8%	98.0%	99.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Monaco	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Nauru	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Singapore	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Qatar	65.0%	77.0%	83.0%	92.9%	96.3%	98.5%	99.2%	99.4%
San Marino	48.9%	59.8%	81.6%	90.5%	93.8%	97.1%	97.1%	97.2%
Netherlands	59.9%	62.1%	65.0%	69.0%	78.5%	87.4%	94.3%	95.9%
Malta	90.1%	89.4%	89.6%	91.0%	93.3%	94.2%	95.2%	95.7%
Uruguay	80.2%	82.0%	85.0%	89.1%	91.3%	94.3%	95.4%	95.7%
Luxembourg	69.5%	74.3%	80.3%	80.9%	84.4%	88.5%	93.9%	94.9%
Iceland	80.4%	85.0%	88.1%	90.6%	92.0%	93.5%	94.1%	94.2%
Jordan	42.7%	50.8%	59.8%	75.1%	78.3%	82.3%	91.8%	93.2%
Argentina	71.7%	78.8%	82.9%	86.9%	89.2%	91.0%	91.9%	92.4%
Japan	63.3%	71.9%	76.2%	77.3%	78.6%	90.6%	91.8%	92.3%
Gabon	12.6%	32.0%	55.2%	69.3%	79.6%	86.2%	90.3%	92.1%
Israel	76.9%	84.3%	88.8%	90.4%	91.3%	91.7%	91.6%	91.6%
Lebanon	41.7%	59.5%	74.5%	83.3%	86.0%	87.6%	89.7%	91.0%
Türkiye	23.4%	30.2%	39.9%	51.0%	59.0%	69.3%	88.9%	89.5%
Venezuela	61.9%	71.9%	79.2%	84.0%	88.2%	88.8%	89.1%	89.3%
Chile	67.8%	75.3%	81.7%	83.2%	86.3%	87.0%	88.3%	89.2%
Sweden	72.5%	81.2%	83.1%	83.4%	84.0%	85.1%	87.9%	89.1%
Andorra	58.5%	77.7%	92.9%	94.8%	92.3%	88.8%	88.6%	88.9%
Denmark	74.0%	79.7%	83.8%	84.8%	85.1%	86.9%	88.2%	88.8%
Brazil	44.7%	53.2%	67.4%	74.9%	81.1%	84.3%	86.9%	88.2%
Libya	23.3%	45.8%	70.5%	80.6%	87.0%	88.1%	87.8%	87.9%
Australia	81.6%	85.3%	85.8%	85.4%	85.1%	86.2%	87.3%	87.7%
Belgium	65.9%	70.6%	74.7%	78.6%	82.0%	85.0%	87.3%	87.7%
United Arab Emirates	73.5%	81.2%	81.1%	78.7%	79.3%	83.4%	85.2%	86.0%
Switzerland	51.0%	57.4%	61.3%	68.7%	73.3%	73.6%	82.3%	85.7%
Peru	46.7%	57.7%	64.7%	68.9%	72.8%	77.4%	83.5%	85.6%
Saudi Arabia	31.4%	49.2%	66.4%	77.0%	80.0%	82.1%	83.8%	84.6%
New Zealand	62.4%	80.4%	83.4%	84.8%	85.7%	85.9%	83.8%	84.0%
Norway	48.7%	65.6%	70.6%	71.9%	76.1%	79.2%	82.7%	83.6%
United Kingdom	78.6%	76.9%	78.6%	78.1%	79.8%	81.0%	82.9%	83.3%
Canada	69.0%	75.9%	75.7%	76.6%	78.6%	81.0%	82.0%	82.9%
Germany	75.7%	79.7%	79.9%	80.0%	80.1%	80.3%	81.5%	82.1%
Bahamas	57.6%	64.4%	73.1%	80.4%	81.0%	82.4%	81.7%	81.3%
South Korea	27.7%	40.7%	56.7%	74.0%	79.6%	82.0%	81.2%	81.2%
Spain	56.5%	66.2%	71.5%	74.8%	76.2%	78.5%	79.7%	80.5%
United States	70.0%	73.5%	73.8%	75.3%	79.1%	80.7%	80.0%	80.2%
Mexico	50.7%	59.0%	66.3%	71.5%	74.9%	76.5%	78.7%	80.0%
Costa Rica	34.1%	38.8%	42.9%	48.6%	59.0%	71.5%	77.5%	79.7%
Belarus	32.7%	44.0%	56.6%	66.4%	69.9%	74.6%	77.8%	79.5%
Oman	16.4%	33.2%	55.3%	70.4%	71.5%	75.2%	80.0%	79.5%
Palau	43.9%	58.3%	62.5%	69.5%	69.6%	80.7%	79.1%	79.3%
Greece	55.8%	64.3%	69.5%	71.5%	72.7%	76.4%	78.3%	79.2%
Marshall Islands	34.8%	54.3%	59.7%	67.1%	68.3%	73.4%	77.3%	79.1%
France	61.7%	71.4%	73.2%	74.1%	76.5%	77.1%	78.7%	78.8%
Colombia	48.1%	58.2%	64.7%	69.5%	74.3%	76.7%	77.6%	78.8%
Cape Verde	6.5%	19.3%	23.5%	44.1%	53.9%	61.8%	72.9%	77.6%
Malaysia	26.1%	29.4%	34.2%	49.0%	62.0%	70.9%	75.1%	77.4%
Iran	34.0%	41.5%	49.9%	56.5%	64.5%	70.6%	75.6%	77.4%
Cuba	57.7%	60.3%	68.4%	73.7%	75.6%	76.6%	77.1%	77.2%
Algeria	31.3%	39.6%	42.8%	52.1%	59.9%	67.1%	73.1%	75.8%
El Salvador	38.4%	39.4%	42.8%	49.0%	56.6%	65.4%	73.1%	75.5%
Russia	54.1%	62.6%	69.9%	73.7%	73.2%	73.7%	74.7%	75.3%
Brunei	43.3%	63.2%	59.5%	65.7%	71.2%	75.3%	74.8%	75.0%
Finland	55.6%	60.3%	63.1%	63.9%	67.1%	69.8%	73.1%	74.5%
Bulgaria	37.1%	52.3%	62.1%	67.0%	68.3%	71.5%	73.3%	74.2%
Dominica	37.9%	38.5%	46.5%	64.1%	65.2%	68.0%	71.8%	74.0%
Djibouti	50.8%	63.1%	73.2%	76.1%	73.3%	70.6%	72.0%	73.0%
Czechia	59.6%	64.4%	74.7%	75.2%	74.0%	73.3%	72.7%	72.9%
Dominican Republic	30.2%	40.2%	51.5%	55.0%	61.3%	74.2%	73.3%	72.5%
Syria	40.0%	43.4%	46.7%	48.8%	51.9%	55.7%	73.4%	72.1%
Equatorial Guinea	26.0%	26.2%	26.3%	35.0%	38.8%	53.1%	70.4%	71.6%
Bolivia	36.9%	39.2%	44.1%	55.9%	61.9%	66.4%	70.0%	71.6%
Angola	10.4%	14.5%	24.1%	37.9%	50.5%	60.1%	67.5%	71.5%
Mongolia	36.9%	45.0%	52.3%	57.0%	56.7%	67.8%	68.1%	71.1%
Estonia	57.6%	65.2%	70.0%	71.3%	67.4%	67.8%	69.9%	70.7%
Tunisia	37.5%	44.7%	51.6%	58.1%	63.6%	66.6%	69.1%	70.7%
Hungary	53.4%	55.3%	57.9%	61.0%	64.3%	69.5%	70.3%	70.7%
Paraguay	35.6%	37.0%	41.4%	50.1%	57.5%	59.5%	66.1%	70.4%
Iraq	44.0%	57.0%	66.0%	69.7%	67.6%	69.1%	69.9%	69.9%
Austria	49.9%	51.7%	54.7%	64.1%	66.8%	67.1%	68.5%	69.7%
Italy	59.3%	64.5%	66.8%	66.7%	67.2%	68.2%	69.5%	69.7%
Ukraine	47.4%	54.9%	62.2%	67.4%	67.4%	68.6%	69.4%	69.6%
São Tomé & Príncipe	15.4%	29.8%	33.3%	43.7%	53.0%	66.1%	68.0%	69.2%
Lithuania	39.8%	50.6%	61.5%	67.7%	67.0%	66.8%	67.4%	69.1%
Latvia	57.1%	62.7%	68.4%	70.7%	68.1%	67.8%	68.1%	68.6%
Botswana	3.0%	9.0%	14.9%	43.6%	53.2%	63.5%	66.4%	68.0%
Nepal	3.5%	3.9%	14.6%	19.8%	31.1%	62.0%	66.1%	67.0%
Cyprus	35.3%	40.1%	61.1%	67.1%	68.8%	67.5%	66.7%	66.7%
China	19.7%	17.4%	19.4%	26.2%	36.4%	49.2%	63.5%	66.3%
Panama	41.3%	47.6%	49.8%	53.9%	62.2%	65.1%	65.8%	66.2%
Armenia	51.2%	59.9%	66.2%	67.7%	65.0%	64.3%	65.2%	65.9%
Suriname	61.0%	65.9%	66.1%	66.4%	66.7%	66.4%	66.0%	65.8%
Montenegro	24.6%	33.5%	44.9%	48.5%	59.1%	64.3%	65.2%	65.6%
Tuvalu	12.4%	14.5%	30.2%	39.7%	45.5%	55.1%	61.9%	65.4%
Gambia	9.1%	13.2%	27.2%	35.2%	47.0%	56.0%	62.2%	65.0%
Ireland	44.9%	51.8%	55.4%	56.9%	59.1%	61.9%	63.5%	64.6%
North Korea	40.6%	54.2%	56.9%	58.4%	59.4%	60.3%	62.6%	64.2%
Republic of the Congo	36.7%	38.3%	46.8%	54.6%	58.9%	62.4%	63.6%	64.1%
South Africa	46.7%	47.8%	48.4%	52.0%	56.3%	62.6%	63.4%	63.8%
Nigeria	14.2%	20.2%	27.4%	35.2%	43.3%	51.7%	59.8%	63.8%
Ecuador	34.7%	39.3%	47.0%	55.1%	60.7%	62.7%	63.1%	63.4%
Kiribati	15.2%	24.5%	32.4%	35.0%	43.3%	48.5%	58.4%	63.4%
Morocco	29.4%	34.5%	41.1%	48.4%	53.6%	58.3%	62.1%	63.1%
North Macedonia	34.0%	47.4%	53.5%	57.5%	58.5%	58.1%	61.2%	62.9%
Thailand	11.8%	13.3%	17.1%	18.8%	31.5%	44.0%	57.2%	62.8%
Serbia	29.1%	40.0%	46.2%	50.4%	55.6%	59.4%	61.2%	62.6%
Kazakhstan	44.7%	50.5%	54.1%	57.2%	56.0%	54.2%	60.0%	62.4%
Portugal	30.8%	35.2%	41.3%	47.7%	54.4%	61.1%	61.1%	61.5%
Mauritania	6.9%	15.1%	28.7%	39.5%	38.1%	46.0%	57.0%	61.5%
Georgia	42.6%	48.0%	52.3%	55.1%	52.5%	55.2%	59.0%	61.2%
Poland	48.1%	52.1%	58.2%	61.3%	61.7%	60.8%	59.9%	60.1%
Barbados	40.4%	45.3%	63.5%	63.6%	62.5%	59.2%	59.3%	59.7%
Fiji	25.6%	35.3%	37.8%	41.1%	48.1%	52.0%	57.2%	59.5%
Nicaragua	39.2%	47.3%	51.1%	53.5%	55.2%	56.8%	58.7%	59.4%
Jamaica	29.7%	41.4%	47.2%	49.4%	51.7%	53.8%	57.1%	59.4%
Indonesia	14.6%	16.8%	22.1%	30.6%	42.0%	49.9%	56.3%	59.4%
Honduras	23.3%	28.6%	35.1%	40.5%	45.3%	51.3%	56.9%	59.3%
Ghana	23.3%	29.0%	31.0%	35.7%	43.9%	50.7%	56.2%	58.9%
Albania	30.8%	31.6%	33.7%	35.9%	41.6%	51.9%	57.1%	58.9%
Azerbaijan	48.1%	50.2%	53.2%	53.7%	51.1%	53.3%	58.3%	58.6%
Croatia	30.1%	40.4%	47.3%	54.1%	55.7%	55.3%	56.5%	57.8%
Guatemala	31.8%	36.0%	32.8%	33.9%	43.2%	51.3%	54.5%	56.3%
Liberia	18.6%	26.1%	35.8%	43.3%	43.8%	48.1%	53.4%	56.1%
Slovenia	28.2%	37.0%	48.5%	50.6%	50.7%	50.1%	55.4%	56.0%
Philippines	30.0%	31.9%	33.8%	36.0%	39.1%	45.5%	54.1%	55.8%
Senegal	22.6%	31.3%	36.0%	38.9%	40.7%	43.6%	51.1%	55.8%
Cameroon	13.6%	20.3%	32.3%	40.1%	46.2%	50.9%	54.3%	55.7%
Haiti	15.2%	19.3%	20.6%	24.4%	36.8%	46.1%	52.6%	55.6%
Somalia	17.7%	23.2%	26.8%	29.4%	33.1%	38.6%	52.3%	55.1%
Côte d’Ivoire	18.4%	28.2%	37.2%	39.7%	43.1%	47.2%	51.8%	54.5%
Trinidad & Tobago	17.5%	38.8%	52.3%	55.0%	55.9%	54.1%	53.9%	54.0%
Benin	9.8%	17.7%	27.3%	34.8%	38.3%	42.9%	49.4%	53.4%
Slovakia	33.4%	41.0%	51.8%	56.8%	56.1%	54.6%	53.2%	53.2%
Bosnia & Herzegovina	19.0%	27.3%	35.8%	39.3%	42.6%	45.7%	50.0%	52.7%
Romania	34.4%	42.0%	49.7%	54.2%	52.9%	53.9%	52.6%	52.2%
Uzbekistan	34.3%	36.6%	41.1%	40.8%	47.7%	51.3%	50.8%	51.0%
Namibia	23.4%	24.9%	25.6%	26.9%	32.1%	41.8%	48.5%	50.9%
St. Vincent & Grenadines	40.1%	43.0%	43.5%	43.9%	44.9%	46.1%	47.3%	48.0%
Turkmenistan	46.6%	47.9%	47.2%	45.0%	46.1%	46.9%	47.1%	47.1%
Guinea-Bissau	13.5%	15.0%	17.3%	31.9%	36.8%	40.0%	44.3%	46.7%
Sierra Leone	17.4%	24.4%	30.2%	33.5%	35.5%	38.6%	43.2%	45.9%
Zambia	17.2%	30.7%	39.9%	39.4%	35.9%	40.0%	43.9%	45.9%
Seychelles	27.5%	38.7%	49.4%	48.9%	43.4%	42.7%	44.3%	45.5%
Democratic Republic of the Congo	22.3%	24.0%	26.8%	30.3%	34.9%	39.4%	43.3%	45.1%
Lesotho	3.7%	9.2%	11.2%	12.9%	19.3%	27.4%	39.6%	44.7%
Central African Republic	20.1%	27.6%	35.9%	37.2%	37.7%	38.6%	42.3%	44.6%
Togo	10.6%	21.4%	24.7%	28.7%	33.1%	37.6%	41.9%	44.4%
Moldova	23.2%	32.0%	40.0%	47.0%	40.4%	39.3%	41.3%	43.7%
Bhutan	2.5%	3.2%	12.2%	20.2%	27.6%	33.9%	39.7%	43.4%
Egypt	37.8%	42.6%	43.9%	43.6%	42.7%	42.9%	42.5%	42.9%
Maldives	11.4%	11.9%	22.8%	25.9%	27.6%	36.8%	40.4%	42.5%
Belize	53.9%	54.3%	51.7%	47.4%	47.7%	45.2%	42.6%	41.6%
Cambodia	10.2%	17.6%	12.7%	15.7%	18.6%	21.1%	39.8%	41.1%
Zimbabwe	12.5%	17.4%	22.3%	29.6%	32.4%	32.7%	37.0%	40.5%
Laos	7.8%	9.5%	12.4%	15.2%	22.2%	30.6%	36.6%	40.3%
Pakistan	22.3%	24.8%	28.1%	30.8%	33.0%	34.8%	37.5%	39.5%
Mauritius	39.9%	44.0%	42.1%	43.9%	42.1%	40.3%	39.2%	39.0%
Vietnam	15.3%	20.7%	19.2%	19.2%	24.4%	30.3%	35.6%	38.8%
Guinea	9.7%	17.0%	24.7%	28.2%	30.9%	33.8%	36.5%	38.5%
Mozambique	3.6%	7.3%	13.1%	23.2%	29.2%	31.0%	33.9%	37.2%
Yemen	3.4%	6.0%	12.4%	20.2%	26.6%	30.6%	35.7%	37.0%
Tanzania	4.9%	6.3%	14.8%	18.9%	22.2%	28.2%	33.9%	36.9%
Grenada	30.4%	32.2%	32.9%	33.4%	35.9%	35.9%	36.2%	36.7%
India	17.9%	19.7%	23.5%	25.6%	27.6%	30.9%	34.1%	35.7%
Sudan	11.7%	17.5%	19.8%	30.0%	32.3%	32.7%	34.6%	34.9%
Kyrgyzstan	34.4%	37.5%	38.3%	38.0%	35.3%	35.3%	34.8%	34.7%
Eritrea	10.4%	12.8%	14.4%	18.6%	34.1%	35.6%	35.1%	34.5%
Comoros	13.2%	19.8%	23.2%	28.3%	28.0%	28.9%	32.1%	33.9%
Bangladesh	5.1%	7.4%	14.7%	19.9%	23.3%	27.7%	31.1%	33.2%
Madagascar	10.8%	14.1%	18.5%	21.9%	25.0%	27.9%	30.7%	32.9%
Mali	7.0%	10.8%	14.0%	16.6%	19.0%	23.1%	29.0%	32.2%
Kenya	8.2%	10.1%	15.8%	18.2%	19.5%	31.9%	31.2%	32.2%
Uganda	4.4%	6.2%	6.8%	9.8%	11.6%	18.8%	28.5%	31.9%
St. Kitts & Nevis	27.5%	34.2%	35.9%	34.6%	32.8%	31.3%	31.5%	31.9%
Solomon Islands	2.7%	7.1%	10.8%	13.8%	15.8%	20.1%	28.0%	31.3%
Rwanda	2.6%	3.2%	4.8%	5.3%	15.8%	16.9%	24.5%	30.9%
Myanmar	19.0%	23.3%	24.6%	25.8%	27.5%	29.1%	30.2%	30.6%
St. Lucia	20.3%	22.1%	26.4%	29.5%	27.9%	18.5%	25.8%	29.1%
Burkina Faso	5.0%	5.9%	8.4%	13.2%	18.0%	24.1%	26.4%	28.9%
Timor-Leste	10.1%	12.2%	16.6%	21.0%	24.1%	29.6%	29.0%	28.8%
Chad	6.6%	11.3%	19.1%	21.2%	21.7%	21.8%	24.7%	27.6%
Eswatini	4.1%	10.1%	18.8%	22.9%	22.8%	22.3%	24.7%	26.7%
Guyana	29.0%	30.1%	29.5%	29.6%	28.8%	26.5%	26.4%	26.5%
Tajikistan	33.4%	37.1%	34.3%	31.9%	26.5%	26.5%	26.2%	26.2%
Afghanistan	8.1%	11.2%	15.7%	17.3%	18.6%	22.3%	25.3%	25.9%
Burundi	1.8%	2.9%	4.3%	6.3%	8.0%	11.0%	19.9%	25.7%
Antigua & Barbuda	39.6%	33.7%	34.5%	35.5%	32.2%	26.0%	24.6%	24.3%
Ethiopia	7.1%	8.6%	10.4%	12.8%	14.9%	17.5%	21.6%	24.1%
Micronesia	23.0%	25.2%	26.5%	26.0%	22.3%	22.3%	22.4%	22.5%
Vanuatu	8.0%	11.0%	14.8%	18.8%	21.7%	24.7%	22.4%	22.3%
South Sudan	8.7%	8.5%	8.5%	12.6%	16.0%	17.5%	20.2%	21.7%
Tonga	18.3%	20.2%	20.6%	22.2%	23.0%	23.4%	21.9%	21.2%
Sri Lanka	17.6%	22.3%	21.6%	18.1%	14.6%	17.2%	19.7%	20.5%
Niger	5.7%	9.1%	13.7%	15.4%	16.1%	16.2%	17.0%	18.4%
Malawi	4.0%	5.7%	9.1%	11.6%	14.7%	15.5%	16.3%	17.6%
Samoa	18.9%	20.3%	21.2%	21.0%	22.0%	19.8%	18.1%	17.5%
Papua New Guinea	3.5%	10.2%	13.1%	15.4%	13.2%	13.0%	14.2%	15.8%
Liechtenstein	20.4%	18.4%	18.3%	16.9%	15.0%	14.4%	14.7%	14.6%
Countries with data	193	193	193	193	193	193	193	193

Notes on reading this history

Yearly values come from the same World Bank indicator. The number of countries with data differs by year, so each year’s ranks are given only among the countries that have data that year. The ranking page uses each country’s latest year, so it may not match a single year’s ranking here.

Source: Urban population (% of total population), indicator SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS. Processed by this site. data.worldbank.org

World Bank data last updated: 2026-10-08