Share of population residing in urban areas
What you should know about this indicator
The projection method for urban population in the World Urbanization Prospects involves a two-step process using an established extrapolation method based on urban-rural ratios. Initially, the average annual rate of change in the urban-rural ratio is calculated using data from the last two censuses, which informs the rate of change in urban and rural populations. This rate is then extrapolated, assuming a logistic path of urban proportion growth. Subsequently, a "world norm" is applied, estimated from empirical urban-rural growth differences in two groups of countries categorized by population size. This norm uses a regression equation to establish a hypothetical urban-rural growth difference for different levels of initial urban percentage.
The country-specific urban-rural growth difference is then converged with this hypothetical difference over 25 years, allowing the urbanization process of a country to align with a global urbanization pattern. This method ensures that urban-rural growth differences evolve towards a worldwide trend rather than remaining constant.
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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 population residing in urban areas”, 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, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/urban-population-share-2050 [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); HYDE (2023) – with minor processing by Our World in DataFull citation
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2018); HYDE (2023) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Share of population residing in urban areas” [dataset]. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, “World Urbanization Prospects Dataset”; PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, “History Database of the Global Environment 3.3” [original data]. Retrieved November 17, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/urban-population-share-2050