Demographics
Verified dataFor all of human history most people lived off the land. That ended in 2007.
In 1960 about a third of humanity lived in towns and cities. In 2007 the share passed half for the first time, and it is now 58%. It is a threshold our species crosses only once.
CSV · 66 rows · 1960–2025
The share of the world's population living in urban areas rose from 34.2% in 1960 to 57.8% in 2025, crossing half in 2007 — the first time in the history of our species that most people did not live in the countryside. The shift was uneven: East Asia and the Pacific went from a quarter urban to nearly two-thirds, and Latin America is now 82% urban, while South Asia (36%) and Sub-Saharan Africa (45%) remain mostly rural and hold most of the urbanisation still to come.
Key findings
- The world's urban share rose from 34.2% in 1960 to 57.8% in 2025.
- It passed half in 2007 — 49.87% in 2006, 50.41% in 2007 — for the first time in human history.
- East Asia and the Pacific changed most, from 24.9% urban to 64.8%, a rise of 40 percentage points.
- Latin America is now the most urban region at 81.5%, having overtaken North America at 80.5%.
- Sub-Saharan Africa went from 14.3% to 44.7% and South Asia from 16.3% to 35.8% — both still mostly rural.
- Those two regions are where most of the world's remaining urbanisation is expected to happen.
Explore the data
Coverage: Jan 1, 1960 – Dec 31, 2025 · World
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Sources
Primary source
World Development Indicators
World Bank, from the UN Population Division
Urban population (% of total population) — SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS
Accessed Aug 30, 2026
World and regional aggregates retrieved via the World Bank API. Urban classification follows each country's own national definition.
Methodology
Figures are the World Bank's urban population as a share of total population (series SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS), which aggregates national statistics compiled by the UN Population Division. Six World Bank regional aggregates are shown alongside the world total, each on a full 0–100% axis. The crossing point is identified as the first year in which the world series reaches 50%: it stands at 49.87% in 2006 and 50.41% in 2007. Where the right-hand labels for regions with similar values would overlap, they are spaced apart while keeping their order.
What this does not show
There is no single international definition of 'urban'. Each country decides what counts as a town or city: some apply a population threshold as low as 2,000 inhabitants, others require administrative status, and a few use population density or the share of non-agricultural employment. A settlement classified as urban in one country might be rural in its neighbour, so cross-country comparisons are approximate and the precise year the world passed half depends on those national definitions. Reclassification also matters — a place can become 'urban' in the statistics because a boundary moved rather than because anyone moved. The regional groupings are World Bank aggregates and combine countries at very different stages.
Creator
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License: CC BY 4.0
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<figure style="margin:0;max-width:1600px">
<a href="https://chartive.org/visualizations/world-urbanisation-1960-2025" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
<img src="https://chartive.org/infographics/world-urbanisation-1960-2025.png" alt="Line chart of the urban share of population from 1960 to 2025 for the world and six regions, on a 0 to 100 percent axis. A thick gold world line rises from 34% to 58% and crosses a dashed line marked half of humanity in 2007, where a dot and annotation mark the crossing. Latin America rises from 49% to 82%, North America from 70% to 80%, Europe and Central Asia from 55% to 74%, and East Asia and the Pacific climbs steeply from 25% to 65%. Sub-Saharan Africa reaches 45% and South Asia 36%, both still below half." width="1600" height="2133" style="max-width:100%;height:auto" />
</a>
<figcaption style="font:14px/1.4 system-ui,sans-serif;color:#57534e;margin-top:8px">
Graphic by Chartive Editorial, using data from World Development Indicators — via <a href="https://chartive.org/visualizations/world-urbanisation-1960-2025" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chartive</a>
</figcaption>
</figure>Reuse is welcome — the embed keeps a link back to the source.
