The world is reported to become majority urban
On the aggregation of countries' own national definitions of "urban", the global urban share was reported to pass half. The milestone was real within that convention and does not survive translation into the harmonised grid-based method adopted in 2025, under which cities alone hold 45 per cent and cities plus towns 81 per cent — a reminder that the date depended on the definition.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Twenty-first-century urbanisation · phenomenon · Global · not located
- Degree of Urbanisation · concept · not located
Evidence
Verified — Every field is supported by a cited authoritative source.
World Urbanization Prospects 2025: Summary of Results
Establishes the 2025 settlement shares (45 per cent cities, 36 per cent towns, 19 per cent rural), the count of 33 megacities, the projection of about 982 million additional city dwellers by 2050 concentrated in seven countries, and the first full integration of the Degree of Urbanisation. V55 verification basis: the UN's own release page carried the headline population-share and megacity claims and attributed them to this report; WebFetch is blocked in this environment, so the Summary of Results volume itself was not opened and the finer figures rest on the release and its summaries.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division · 2025-11-18 · Verified
UN DESA Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects 2025; release page un.org/en/desa/WUP-2025
Recorded on Twenty-first-century urbanisation
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- World Urbanization Prospects 2025 changes the measurement · 2025-11-18
- The JMP reports flat urban water coverage · 2025-08-26
- Where the next billion city dwellers are projected to be · 2050 (projection)
- Nigeria's census is postponed again · 2023