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Data

Minimum number of inhabitants for a settlement to qualify as an urban area

See all data and research on:
Urbanization

What you should know about this indicator

  • There is no consistent definition of what constitutes an 'urban area'. This is highly variable across countries. This data presents a given country's minimum threshold of inhabitants needed for it to be defined an 'urban area'. For many countries, there is no defined threshold based on inhabitants; other metrics such as population density, infrastructure, or even pre-defined cities may be used.
  • Note that some countries with minimum inhabitant thresholds noted here also include additional qualities (such as population density) to be met.
Minimum number of inhabitants for a settlement to qualify as an urban area
The concept of an 'urban area' lacks a universal definition, with national variations based on minimum population thresholds or other metrics like population density, infrastructure, and pre-defined cities.
Source
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2018) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
January 17, 2024
Date range
2018–2018
Unit
people

Related research and writing

A dark blue background with a lighter blue world map superimposed over it. Yellow text that says Urbanization by Our World in Data

Urbanization

Hannah Ritchie, Veronika Samborska and Max Roser

How urban is the world?

Hannah Ritchie

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

This dataset is derived from the World Urbanization Prospects, providing comprehensive data on global urbanization trends, including population figures, urban and rural population distributions, and projections for future urban growth.

Retrieved on
January 17, 2024
Retrieved from
https://population.un.org/wup/Download/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2018). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision, Online Edition.

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Minimum number of inhabitants for a settlement to qualify as an urban area”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Veronika Samborska and Max Roser (2024) - “Urbanization”. Data adapted from United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population-threshold-for-urban-area [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2018) – with major processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2018) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Minimum number of inhabitants for a settlement to qualify as an urban area” [dataset]. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, “World Urbanization Prospects Dataset” [original data]. Retrieved December 12, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population-threshold-for-urban-area