Skip to content
Nations Inquiry — home

Data for 1990

Population Living in Cities (Degree of Urbanisation), 1990

1990, 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), 1990 covers 222 countries on 3 measures. 2 countries share the highest reading, 100.000; 45 countries share the lowest reading, 0.000. The middle country reads 27.618. Against 1989, 174 values changed (140 up, 34 down), the same countries are covered.

Download CSVCite this year
Share

Share this page

Population Living in Cities (Degree of Urbanisation) · Data for 1990

Highest2 countries share it

100.000

Lowest45 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), 1990, 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), 1990: every country, as published by UN DESA Population Division.
GibraltarGIBSouthern Europe100.0000.0000.000
Vatican CityVATSouthern Europe100.0000.0000.000
SingaporeSGPSouth-eastern Asia99.2490.6490.102
Hong KongHKGEastern Asia94.0725.1650.763
MacauMACEastern Asia86.58013.3290.091
KuwaitKWTWestern Asia83.12013.6483.232
TaiwanTWNEastern Asia72.77021.2605.970
South KoreaKOREastern Asia71.60915.04813.343
Republic of the CongoCOGMiddle Africa69.38415.99814.618
MaltaMLTSouthern Europe67.37925.1407.481
JapanJPNEastern Asia66.00524.2039.792
DjiboutiDJIEastern Africa60.51626.46513.019
North KoreaPRKEastern Asia60.05126.60313.347
ArgentinaARGSouth America58.53022.88818.582
VenezuelaVENSouth America57.80826.10116.090
PalestinePSEWestern Asia56.89127.90215.207
BahamasBHSCaribbean55.56019.77124.669
BahrainBHRWestern Asia54.22043.0432.737
IsraelISRWestern Asia53.86433.29612.840
ChileCHLSouth America53.61718.90227.481
JordanJORWestern Asia53.53828.51917.943
UruguayURYSouth America53.19730.81015.994
United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe52.76231.96515.273
IranIRNSouthern Asia51.87326.32221.805
MexicoMEXCentral America51.64722.07726.276

02In 1990

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. Singapore99.249
  4. Hong Kong94.072
  5. Macau86.580

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 27.618. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

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

    HighestMonaco100.000

    Lowest7 share it

    Middle country: 32.058

  • Population in rural areas (%)

    Highest5 share it

    Lowest3 share it

    Middle country: 33.032

031989 → 1990

Since 1989

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 174values changed, of 222 in both
  • 140 · 34rose · fell
  • 48unchanged

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 1990.

  • 177 distinct values among 222

    Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 45 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 (1990). Population Living in Cities (Degree of Urbanisation), 1990 [data set], describing 1990. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/population-in-cities/1990

0676 held

Other years