# What Percent of Your Country is Urban?



## Ritz (May 18, 2007)

What percent of your nation is urban? I hope we can figure out the agrarian/urban ratio of our countries. Does anyone have any stats for the USA? Brazil? Pakistan? China? 

Thanks.


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## monkeyronin (May 18, 2006)

80% of Canadians live in cities.

Of the countries you listed, the US is also around 80% and Pakistan is 34%. China I am unsure of the exact number, but the majority of the country is still rural, however, it will become the minority by 2010. Brazil is also highly urbanized, in the 70-80% range.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

Not a country but HK is over 90% urban.


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

I believe that the US is between 75-80% urbanized.


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## gladisimo (Dec 11, 2006)

I'm not sure of the methodology they used, but using the default parameters of their page:

HK: 100% (out of interest)
Brazil: 84.2%
China: 40.4%
Pakistan: 34.9%
USA: 80.8%

2005 Figures

Source: UN Population Division


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

gladisimo said:


> I'm not sure of the methodology they used, but using the default parameters of their page:
> 
> HK: 100% (out of interest)
> Brazil: 84.2%
> ...


HK 100% urban? There are some rural areas within The Outlying Islands and The New Territories.


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## mhays (Sep 12, 2002)

These numbers are the definition of non-comparable, apples to oranges.


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## Obscene (Jul 22, 2007)

84% of Sweden is obviously urban. Was surprised of the high rate.


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## ØlandDK (May 29, 2005)

Denmark:
85.6%

...would have thought it was more...according to http://esa.un.org/unpp/


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

5.517.000 inhabitants of 16.336.000 in the Netherlands live in one of the 30 biggest cities. 
As total 41,5% of the inhabitants live in urban areas. However, the Netherlands is one of the densest populated countries in the world, if you don't count small islands or ministates. Only other larger countries like South Korea, Taiwan, Bangladesh and Bahrain are more densely populated. 

Kinda weird such low percentage lives in cities while it's one of the densest populated countries in the world...


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## maayan (Jul 4, 2006)

91.6% in Israel
We are also very dense and half of the country is a desert that only 7% live there, so we are even more dense than the offical numbers


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## maayan (Jul 4, 2006)

gladisimo said:


> I'm not sure of the methodology they used, but
> 
> Source: UN Population Division


amm..
Japan 65.8% (only?)
Belgium 97.2%
Russia 73.0%
Netherlands 80%


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## sk (Dec 6, 2005)

CYPRUS
data for 2005

district: nicosia
urban.....224,500k
rural.......78,100k

district: limassol
urban.....176,900k
rural.......43,000k

district: larnaka
urban.....79,000k
rural.......48,100k

district: paphos
urban.....52,800k
rural.......20,800k

district: famagusta
urban.....0 (no city exists in this part of the island,only some small municipalities which are considered rural)
rural.......42,200k

total of all districts:
urban.....533,200k
rural.......233,200k

and in %.....69,57% is urban
30,43% is rural


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## SuburbanWalker (Jun 23, 2007)

Chris1491 said:


> 5.517.000 inhabitants of 16.336.000 in the Netherlands live in one of the 30 biggest cities.
> As total 41,5% of the inhabitants live in urban areas. However, the Netherlands is one of the densest populated countries in the world, if you don't count small islands or ministates. Only other larger countries like South Korea, Taiwan, Bangladesh and Bahrain are more densely populated.
> 
> Kinda weird such low percentage lives in cities while it's one of the densest populated countries in the world...


Just a matter of definition IMO. What counts as rural in the Netherlands would probably be urban in Canada.


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## Ritz (May 18, 2007)

Doesnt the UN use the same set of guidlines for all places? I mean urban is one definition for all countries, right?

Does anyone know how urban and rural are defined? i mean, is a city like Waco, Tx or Kissimee, Mississipi regarded as rural or urban?


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## PedroGabriel (Feb 5, 2007)

Chris1491 said:


> 5.517.000 inhabitants of 16.336.000 in the Netherlands live in one of the 30 biggest cities.
> As total 41,5% of the inhabitants live in urban areas. However, the Netherlands is one of the densest populated countries in the world, if you don't count small islands or ministates. Only other larger countries like South Korea, Taiwan, Bangladesh and Bahrain are more densely populated.
> 
> Kinda weird such low percentage lives in cities while it's one of the densest populated countries in the world...


I don't think there's nothing wrong with the Netherlands, others are probably overrating and using other metrics! Probably it is the suburb issue. No-one except you said the number of people living in actual cities.


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## Gid (Mar 31, 2005)

Singapore: 100%
This is because Singapore is an island city-state.


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## null (Dec 11, 2002)

China:46%(by the end of 2006)


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## EricIsHim (Jun 16, 2003)

Here is the UN's number definition:
http://esa.un.org/unpp/index.asp?panel=7

It's percentage of urbanized population, not urbanized area.
That's why Hong Kong is 100% urbanized although 75% of the land is still green.


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## julesstoop (Sep 11, 2002)

Chris1491 said:


> 5.517.000 inhabitants of 16.336.000 in the Netherlands live in one of the 30 biggest cities.
> As total 41,5% of the inhabitants live in urban areas. However, the Netherlands is one of the densest populated countries in the world, if you don't count small islands or ministates. Only other larger countries like South Korea, Taiwan, Bangladesh and Bahrain are more densely populated.
> 
> Kinda weird such low percentage lives in cities while it's one of the densest populated countries in the world...


What's your source Chris?
Because I've often seen that (in the Netherlands) all places with more than 25.000 people are considered as urban areas. In which case the percentage has to be closer to 70%


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## SuburbanWalker (Jun 23, 2007)

EricIsHim said:


> Here is the UN's number definition:
> http://esa.un.org/unpp/index.asp?panel=7
> 
> It's percentage of urbanized population, not urbanized area.
> That's why Hong Kong is 100% urbanized although 75% of the land is still green.


Don't forget about this:

"Urban population: De facto population living in areas classified as urban according to the criteria used by each area or country. Data refer to 1 July of the year indicated and are presented in thousands."

So country A could be classifying urban as over 500 habitants a square kilometer, while country B could be classifying it as places with over 25,000 habitants. Different measuring methods makes comparing very tricky.


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## magm (Jun 4, 2007)

In Mexico its close to 75% live in cities.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

EricIsHim said:


> Here is the UN's number definition:
> http://esa.un.org/unpp/index.asp?panel=7
> 
> It's percentage of urbanized population, not urbanized area.
> That's why Hong Kong is 100% urbanized although 75% of the land is still green.


It gets confusing because when I look at it, there are some rural areas in HK.


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## LEP (Dec 8, 2003)

I thought HK was but of China. So the stats need to be included in Chinas stats


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## melbguy (Jan 23, 2007)

Can someone find out what it is for Australia? 

But roughly, just the 5 cities over 1 million in population account for at least 12 of the 20 million inhabitants of Australia.

Australia is very city-centric when it comes to population, with a major biased towards the east coast, which is a good thing for us city dwellers, but I'm sure it doesn't do any good for our rural areas.


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## conquest (Jul 27, 2005)

colombia is about 75% urban.


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## EricIsHim (Jun 16, 2003)

WANCH said:


> It gets confusing because when I look at it, there are some rural areas in HK.


Yes, like Tai O and remote villages in the NT and on outlying island.
But there are only a few thousands people resides in those places compares to the rest 7 million people. It's less than 0.05%, insignificant.


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## EricIsHim (Jun 16, 2003)

LEP said:


> I thought HK was but of China. So the stats need to be included in Chinas stats


Well, HK and Macao are both officially part of China for sure; but the social, economic and political are very different from the mainland China. Stat for the two SARs alone are still useful to compare the data before they returned to China, that's why they are separate from the mainland.


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## PerthCity (Dec 15, 2005)

melbguy said:


> Can someone find out what it is for Australia?
> 
> But roughly, just the 5 cities over 1 million in population account for at least 12 of the 20 million inhabitants of Australia.
> 
> Australia is very city-centric when it comes to population, with a major biased towards the east coast, which is a good thing for us city dwellers, but I'm sure it doesn't do any good for our rural areas.


93% according to this site: 

http://globalis.gvu.unu.edu/indicator_detail.cfm?IndicatorID=30&Country=AU


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Hong Kong still has a number of villages in the outlying areas that are not urban at all. I don't think it is 100% urban.

I doubt larger islands such as Cheung Chau or Lamma are considered 'urban'. There is a substantial population on both islands.


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## gabrielbabb (Aug 11, 2006)

mexico 75.2%


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## LMCA1990 (Jun 18, 2005)

*Colombia*

2005 - 72.7%
_2030 - 80.3%_


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## Occit (Jul 24, 2005)

*Venezuela:*

*Urban Population in 2005: 93.4 %, 2010: 95% *


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## Lacrimosa (Aug 6, 2007)

*BELGIUM*

Belgium: 
middle ages : 1000-1300 31-36 percent for Brabant and Flanders (This was the most urbanized area in Europe).

Now belgium has an urbanization degree of 97 percent, wich is the highest number of the world, it's qiuet normal because its a small country with a lot of people living close together 330/sq km ( one of the highest in the world but not the highest number).
(the number of belgium is the highest is you don't count city-states such as Monaco and Singaore).

The urbanization in the world: 
in 1550 Antwerp (Flanders) was one of the biggest city's in the world.
in 2015 there won't be any European cities anymore in the top 10 biggest cities.
20 percent of the urbanized people in the world come from China
Some City's contain 75percent of the total inhabitance of a country
example: Guinea with its city of Conakry.

Hopefully this gave an other view to your perspectives, because the size of a country or city doesn't mean anything at all it is how many cities are there in an area and is it big or not etc. 

Thanks

http://anderpus.miniville.fr/


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## Ellatur (Apr 7, 2004)

as of 2005
south korea is 80.8%
heres nk for comparison: 61.6%


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## ssiguy2 (Feb 19, 2005)

I beleive in Canada rural is considered to any population under 10,000 except when it is included in a metro area.


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## Mahratta (Feb 18, 2007)

Canada:

80% urban

India:

30% urban

2030: 42% urban


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## KJBrissy (Jan 9, 2006)

BeachRes44 said:


> 93% according to this site:
> 
> http://globalis.gvu.unu.edu/indicator_detail.cfm?IndicatorID=30&Country=AU


Yet it has one of the lowest population densities in the world when you take the whole contry into consideration.


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## PanaManiac (Mar 26, 2005)

*Urban Portrait of a Small Country*

*In terms of area, I'm not sure what percentage of Panama is urban. At a glance it seems like barely over 30%. But if the issue is urban population, it's 57%. Furthermore, 1,141,000 of Panama's urban population (35.3%) live in the capital, Panama City. Panama's population of 3,232,000 is ranked 129 out of 193 countries worldwide.*


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## Halawala (Oct 16, 2005)

Qatar's urban desnsity percentrage is 95.4% which is pretty high. Most people live in the capital Doha, with small pockets in the north, south, and west of the country.


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