Ranking of countries
by urban population
Proportion of urban residents

7 August 2012: Urbanisation has already surpassed the 90-per-cent mark, not only in city states like Singapore and Kuwait, but also in Belgium, Venezuela, Uruguay, Argentina, Israel and the UK. In the US, where for the past 100 years the majority of people have been living in cities, more than 82 per cent of the total population now reside in urban areas. Other countries where the urban population stands at above 80 per cent include Australia, Chile, Brazil, Sweden and South Korea.

2017: LARGEST CITIES IN THE
WORLD AND THEIR MAYORS

• Table 1: Urbanisation in selected countries between 1950 and 2030
• Table 2: Urban population in 122 countries together with their largest cities
• Table 3: Countries with the largest number of people living in urban areas
• Table 4: Countries with the highest proportion of people living in urban areas

The urban population of China accounts for close to 45 per cent of the country’s total number of people, while in India the corresponding figure is just over 30 per cent. With only eleven per cent of its citizens living in towns, Burundi is the least urbanised country in the world.

Countries with the highest
proportions of urban residents