Dataset · UN DESA Population Division
Urban Population Share (National Definitions)
76 years, 1950–2025 · 222 countries
The share of a country's people living in places its own government classifies as urban. It is the familiar per-cent-urban figure and tracks one of the great shifts of the last century — but each country draws the line between town and countryside in its own way.
This site holds every year from 1950 to 2025, read from UN DESA Population Division’s own data and stored exactly as published.
Urban Population Share (National Definitions) · the file
- Newest
- Urban Population Share (National Definitions), 2025
- Held
- 76 years · 16,872 rows
- Licence
- CC BY 3.0 IGO
0176 years
Every year
Every year comes from UN DESA Population Division’s 2025 release, recalculated on one method. Each opens the full table for that year; each downloads as a CSV.
Show all 76 years
Every year in one file, one row per country per year: urban-population-share-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv
023 columns
What’s in the file
Every column, what it holds, how it is stored and what its values look like — what a reader needs before opening the file.
| Column | What it holds | Stored as | Range, 2025 | Distinct | Empty | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CountrycountryName | The country’s name, as this file spells it. | Text | — | 222 | 0 | |
ISO Codecountry_codeIdentifier | The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code, added by this site. Every table here joins on it. | Text · 3 letters | — | 222 | 0 | |
Population in urban areas, as each country defines them (%)urban_population_shareHeadline | The headline figure: Share of the population living in areas the country itself defines as urban (%). | Number · up to 14 decimals | 8.980 Montserrat100.00014 share itmiddle 64.788 | 209 | 0 |
Profiled from the newest file. Range: the lowest and highest value, with the country holding it when only one does. Spread: countries in ten equal steps from lowest to highest. Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score.
03222 countries across every year
Who is covered
How many countries each year holds, continent by continent, who joined and who left, and which places this site covers that the dataset never has.
| 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Africa | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 |
| Americas | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 |
| Asia | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 |
| Europe | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 48 |
| Oceania | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 |
| All | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 | 222 |
The newest 12 of 76 years.
The same 222 countries in every year.
Not in this dataset · 3 places this site covers
UN DESA Population Division gives no figure for these in any year held here. It is the publisher’s choice of scope, and each place’s profile shows what is measured.
04Provenance
Where it comes from
The path from the publisher to this page, and what was checked and changed on the way.
1 · Publisher
UN DESA Population Division
2 · Their file
World Urbanization Prospects 2025: urban population by national definition, % of total, 2025
3 · Read by this site
September 29, 2026
Imported by a script that parses each figure and writes it down unrounded.4 · Stored as
76 files, one per year
Each downloads as a CSV, or every year together as urban-population-share-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv5 · Used on
Its statistic page, and every profile it measures
Precision
The headline is stored to 14 decimals, as published.
Rounded by this site
Never. Tables on screen may show fewer decimals; the files never do.
Changed by this site
Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.
From World Urbanization Prospects 2025, read from the UN Population Division's own workbook of urban and rural shares by national definition. The workbook continues to 2050; those later years are projections and are excluded.
05Reuse
Licence and credit
What the publisher’s licence lets you do, what it asks of you, and a credit line and citation ready to copy.
Licence · checked September 29, 2026
- Share and redistribute it
- Adapt it and build on it
- Use it commercially
- Credit the publisher
- Say what you changed
The version of CC BY written for intergovernmental organisations. Credit the publisher and say what you changed.
A credit line
Source: UN DESA Population Division, Urban Population Share (National Definitions), via Nations Inquiry.
Cite this dataset
UN DESA Population Division. Urban Population Share (National Definitions), 1950–2025 [data set]. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/urban-population-share
The publisher’s own citation: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2025). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2025 Revision, Online Edition.
Plain-language summary, not legal advice. The licence text is what binds.
06Where it is used
Around the site
Where these numbers appear on this site, and the datasets nearest to it.
Charted
Urban Population Share (National Definitions) by countryWho is highest, the map, the spread, who rose and fell, and the records.
Subjects
Near neighbours
- Population Living in Cities (Degree of Urbanisation)UN DESA Population Division · 76 held · 1950–2025
- Crude Birth RateUN DESA Population Division · 74 held · 1950–2023
- Crude Death RateUN DESA Population Division · 74 held · 1950–2023
07Questions
Urban Population Share (National Definitions): questions and answers
What is the Urban Population Share (National Definitions)?
The share of a country's people living in places its own government classifies as urban. It is the familiar per-cent-urban figure and tracks one of the great shifts of the last century — but each country draws the line between town and countryside in its own way.
Which years of the Urban Population Share (National Definitions) can I download?
All 76, from 1950 to 2025, each as a CSV file, or every year together in one CSV.
Does UN DESA Population Division rank countries on it?
No, and this site does not order it either. The files hold values only.
Can I use it commercially?
Yes, under CC BY 3.0 IGO, with credit to UN DESA Population Division. The licence text is linked on this page.