For years the standard headline said that more than half of humanity lives in urban areas. A new United Nations report changes the picture. Using a harmonized method, the UN now says cities are home to 45 percent of the global population of 8.2 billion people, and that more people live in cities than in towns or rural areas. The finding comes from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) World Urbanization Prospects 2025.
What does the UN mean by a city?
The 2025 edition uses the Degree of Urbanisation, a harmonized geospatial approach that is integrated for the first time and gives projections for cities, towns and rural areas. It also provides land area and built-up area data for each settlement type. Towns are defined as clusters of at least 5,000 inhabitants with a density of at least 300 people per square kilometer. The minimum threshold for a city was lowered from 300,000 to 50,000 inhabitants.
Why is the 2025 figure different from the older 55 percent?
The previous edition, from 2018, said 55 percent of the world’s population lived in urban areas and projected 68 percent by 2050. The 2025 figure of 45 percent counts cities only, using one consistent definition for every country, and treats towns as a separate category. The two numbers do not measure the same thing, so the new one is not evidence that the world has become less urban. It is a finer-grained way of counting.
How fast have cities grown?
Cities held about 20 percent of the 2.5 billion people alive in 1950. The number of cities more than doubled between 1975 and 2025. Towns are now the most common settlement type in 71 countries, and rural areas are the most common in 62, down from 116 in 1975.
What are the largest cities?
The UN lists three at the top:
- Jakarta in Indonesia, with nearly 42 million people
- Dhaka in Bangladesh, with almost 40 million
- Tokyo in Japan, with 33 million
Cairo is the only non-Asian city in the top ten. The total number of megacities, meaning cities of 10 million or more residents, rose to 33 in 2025 from 8 in 1975, and 19 of them are in Asia.
How do the 2018 and 2025 reports compare?
The 2018 edition ranked Tokyo first at 37 million, followed by New Delhi at 29 million and Shanghai at 26 million, and it projected 43 megacities by 2030. The 2025 edition, using the new method, ranks Jakarta first at nearly 42 million and puts Tokyo at 33 million, with 37 megacities projected in future. Tokyo did not shrink by four million people between reports. The ranking changed because the boundaries of what counts as a city changed, which is the clearest example of why definitions matter.
Are most people living in megacities?
No. The UN finds that 96 percent of the more than 12,000 cities analyzed have fewer than one million inhabitants, and 81 percent have fewer than 250,000. Small and medium-sized cities have more people than megacities in total and are growing faster, especially in Africa and Asia. Close attention to megacities can therefore miss where most urban growth actually happens, which is in the many smaller places that rarely make headlines.
What is projected through 2050?
Two-thirds of global population growth is projected to occur in cities, and most of the remaining third in towns. Megacities are projected to rise to 37, and cities worldwide could exceed 15,000, with most under 250,000 people. These projections tie closely to the global trend described in our article on the world population peak, because urban growth depends on how many people are added overall and where.
Which cities are shrinking?
Some cities are losing people. Most shrinking cities had fewer than 250,000 inhabitants in 2025. Over one-third are in China and 17 percent are in India. Mexico City and Chengdu have also lost population. Shrinking is a local story that sits alongside the global urban growth trend, and it shows that city size alone does not predict whether a place will grow.
What does this mean for Africa and Asia?
The UN highlights Africa and Asia as the places where small and medium-sized cities are growing fastest. Sub-Saharan Africa also stands out for its rural growth, so the region is expanding in both city and countryside at once. That combination puts pressure on services in towns and cities while rural communities continue to grow.
Is rural population still growing anywhere?
Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where rural populations have continued to grow significantly. Everywhere else, the trend in rural areas is flat or declining, even as the number of towns and cities rises.
Why does the definition matter for planning?
How a country counts its cities shapes how it plans for housing, transport and services. A consistent definition lets governments and researchers compare places on equal terms, and detailed land and built-up area data support decisions in urban planning. A town of 20,000 and a city of 20 million face different questions, and one global average hides the difference.
Frequently asked questions
What share of people live in cities?
45 percent of 8.2 billion people, according to the UN’s 2025 report.
How many megacities are there?
33 in 2025, up from 8 in 1975. The UN projects 37 in future.
Are small cities or megacities growing faster?
Small and medium-sized cities, especially in Africa and Asia, according to the UN.
Which is the largest city?
Jakarta, with nearly 42 million people in the UN’s new method, followed by Dhaka and Tokyo.
Why do the 2018 and 2025 numbers differ?
They use different definitions. The 2018 figure of 55 percent counted urban areas, while the 2025 figure of 45 percent counts only cities under a harmonized method.
What is a town in the UN’s definition?
A cluster of at least 5,000 inhabitants with a density of at least 300 people per square kilometer.