New Urbanization Data Shows 80% Live in Cities, Towns, Suburbs

Our World in Data released an updated urbanization topic page, drawing on European Commission and UN data that uses satellite imagery to classify settlements. The page shows roughly 80% of the global population now lives in cities, towns, or suburbs rather than rural areas.

The update includes dozens of new charts covering population distribution across settlement types, the fastest-growing cities, living conditions in urban areas, and how urbanization ties to broader development patterns. The underlying data is open access under a Creative Commons BY license, with third-party sources noted separately.

Hannah Ritchie and Veronika Samborska led the update. The page is available on the Our World in Data website.