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Data

Share of the urban population living in slums

What you should know about this indicator

Proportion of urban population living in slums (%)

Further information available at: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadata-11-01-01.pdf

Share of the urban population living in slums
Proportion of urban population living in slums (%)
Source
United Nations Human Settlements Programme – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
August 27, 2024
Next expected update
August 2026
Date range
1999–2022
Unit
%

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

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) dataset is the primary collection of data tracking progress towards the SDG indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources.

Retrieved on
August 27, 2024
Retrieved from
https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/dataportal
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 Human Settlements Programme via UN SDG Indicators Database (https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/dataportal), UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (accessed 2024). More information available at: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadata-11-01-01.pdf.

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline

Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
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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: Share of the urban population living in slums”. Our World in Data (2025). Data adapted from United Nations Human Settlements Programme. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20250624-125417/grapher/share-of-urban-population-living-in-slums.html [online resource] (archived on June 24, 2025).
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 Human Settlements Programme – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

United Nations Human Settlements Programme – processed by Our World in Data. “Share of the urban population living in slums” [dataset]. United Nations Human Settlements Programme, “United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), National Statistical Office” [original data]. Retrieved June 25, 2025 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20250624-125417/grapher/share-of-urban-population-living-in-slums.html (archived on June 24, 2025).