Previous Year Question

According to the World Urbanization Prospects 2018 Revision of UN-DESA, approximately 55% of the world's population lived in urban areas in 2018.

At that time, about 4.2 billion people lived in urban settlements, compared with approximately 3.4 billion people in rural areas.

Global urbanization has increased steadily. In 1950, about 30% of the world's population lived in urban areas, while by 2018 the share had risen to 55%.

The 2018 Revision also projected that approximately 68% of the global population could live in urban areas by 2050.

Major drivers of urbanization include rural-to-urban migration, natural population growth in urban areas and administrative reclassification of settlements.

Current Status

According to the UN-DESA World Urbanization Prospects 2025 Revision, about 58% of the world's population lives in urban areas in 2025 when measured according to national definitions.

The 2025 Revision also introduced a harmonized Degree of Urbanization (DEGURBA) methodology. Under this approach, in 2025 approximately—

45% of the population lives in cities
36% lives in towns and semi-dense areas
19% lives in rural areas