Urbanization Rate
Urbanization Rate by country
Commentary
Notable countries
Urbanization is highest at a perfect 100% in Nauru, Monaco, Bahrain, Vatican City, Singapore, and Kuwait, with Qatar also near the top at 99.32%. At the other end, Liechtenstein has the lowest reported urbanization rate at 14.66%, followed by Papua New Guinea at 15.41% and Malawi at 17.27%. A notable surprise is that Europe contains both several of the most urbanized places and the single lowest value in the dataset.
Regional trends
South America has the highest continental average urbanization rate at 76.2%, followed by Europe at 72.75%. Asia (63.14%) and North America (60.01%) sit close to the global mean of 61.03, while Oceania (53.23%) and especially Africa (48.25%) are lower on average. Even so, the country rankings show substantial variation within regions, particularly in Europe and Oceania.
Data source
The data come from the World Bank 2024 and are measured as the percentage of a country's population living in urban areas. Coverage includes 197 countries with available data. A caveat is that this is a share, not a measure of city size or development on its own.
Interpretation
Because higher is better in this dataset, a high urbanization rate means a larger share of people live in urban areas, while a low rate indicates a more rural population distribution. The wide spread around the 61.03% mean suggests major differences in settlement patterns across countries. High urbanization can reflect dense city-based economies, but low urbanization does not automatically imply poor outcomes; it mainly signals a different population geography.