Skip to content
Nations Inquiry — home

Data for 1983

Population Living in Cities (Degree of Urbanisation), 1983

1983, as UN DESA Population Division’s 2025 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

The share of a country's people living in cities, measured the same way everywhere: a city is a dense, continuous cluster of at least 50,000 people, found on population grids built from census and satellite data rather than on administrative maps. It is the UN's comparable answer to how urban a country is, which national definitions cannot give.

Population Living in Cities (Degree of Urbanisation), 1983 covers 222 countries on 3 measures. 2 countries share the highest reading, 100.000; 46 countries share the lowest reading, 0.000. The middle country reads 24.476. Against 1982, 173 values changed (142 up, 31 down), the same countries are covered.

Download CSVCite this year
Share

Share this page

Population Living in Cities (Degree of Urbanisation) · Data for 1983

Highest2 countries share it

100.000

Lowest46 countries share it

0.000

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the highest end.

01Values only

The table

Every country and every column of Population Living in Cities (Degree of Urbanisation), 1983, as published. The file carries values only, so no position is shown. “=” marks a shared position.

Showing 25 of 222 countries · select a heading to sort

Population Living in Cities (Degree of Urbanisation), 1983: every country, as published by UN DESA Population Division.
GibraltarGIBSouthern Europe100.0000.0000.000
Vatican CityVATSouthern Europe100.0000.0000.000
SingaporeSGPSouth-eastern Asia98.5841.3090.108
Hong KongHKGEastern Asia93.8995.2810.820
MacauMACEastern Asia85.86913.4940.638
KuwaitKWTWestern Asia85.21610.3114.473
Republic of the CongoCOGMiddle Africa73.39911.93014.670
TaiwanTWNEastern Asia69.14824.2976.556
MaltaMLTSouthern Europe68.53823.2898.173
South KoreaKOREastern Asia67.77717.23814.984
JapanJPNEastern Asia64.11325.82210.065
LebanonLBNWestern Asia63.29720.66416.039
North KoreaPRKEastern Asia60.75726.32812.915
ArgentinaARGSouth America56.80824.11219.080
VenezuelaVENSouth America54.59828.63816.764
JordanJORWestern Asia54.04524.14521.810
UruguayURYSouth America53.84830.14316.009
United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe52.47332.19015.337
BahrainBHRWestern Asia52.29943.2014.500
ChileCHLSouth America51.72719.72028.553
IsraelISRWestern Asia50.06436.09913.837
BahamasBHSCaribbean49.88123.23126.888
BarbadosBRBCaribbean49.60437.85312.544
Trinidad and TobagoTTOCaribbean49.46336.67713.860
ColombiaCOLSouth America49.03822.71728.245

02In 1983

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline, then the highest and lowest on each other measure.

Highest

  1. Gibraltarshared100.000
  2. Vatican Cityshared100.000
  3. Singapore98.584
  4. Hong Kong93.899
  5. Macau85.869

Lowest

  1. Samoashared0.000
  2. Vanuatushared0.000
  3. United States Virgin Islandsshared0.000
  4. British Virgin Islandsshared0.000
  5. Saint Vincent and the Grenadinesshared0.000

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 24.476. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

  • Population in towns and semi-dense areas (%)

    HighestMonaco100.000

    Lowest8 share it

    Middle country: 32.652

  • Population in rural areas (%)

    Highest6 share it

    Lowest3 share it

    Middle country: 35.067

031982 → 1983

Since 1982

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 173values changed, of 222 in both
  • 142 · 31rose · fell
  • 49unchanged

Rose most

Fell most

04Caveats

Read before you use

Using the series

  • One year of the 2025 release

    Every year in this series comes from UN DESA Population Division’s 2025 release, recalculated on one method, so a change from one year to the next is not a revision. It can differ from what was first published for 1983.

  • 176 distinct values among 222

    Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 46 countries share 0.000. Countries sharing a value share a position too.

  • Nothing missing

    Every one of the 222 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

Licence in full

What this site changed: Reshaped to one row per country, with its ISO code; no value recalculated, rescaled or rounded. In full

Licence: CC BY 3.0 IGO · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

UN DESA Population Division (1983). Population Living in Cities (Degree of Urbanisation), 1983 [data set], describing 1983. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/population-in-cities/1983

0676 held

Other years