This report provides a detailed overview of the methodology used to produce the 2025 Revision of the World Urbanization Prospects dataset, prepared by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat.
Click here for the full report (under construction)
The Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations has been issuing for several decades revised estimates and projections of the urban and rural populations of all countries in the world and of their major urban agglomerations. The World Urbanization Prospects presents findings which are consistent with the size of the total population of each country as estimated or projected in the 2024 Revision of World Population Prospects.
18 November 2025, 12:45pm EST
Press Briefing Room, S-237, United Nations Headquarters, New York
Broadcast on UN WebTV
UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) side event
18 November 2025, 14:30 to 15:00 EST/16:30 to 17:00 BRT (video recording)
SDG Pavilion, Belém, Brazil
Human Planet Forum 2025: People and Planet: Shared Understanding for Informed Action (concept note) (live stream)
19–21 November 2025
European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Ispra (VA), Italy
Bjørg Sandkjær, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs introduced the World Urbanization Prospects 2025: Summary of Results report at a press briefing on 18 November 2025.
Key messages based on World Urbanization Prospects 2025: Summary of Results, prepared by the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA).
World Urbanization Prospects 2025: Summary of Results highlights the key findings of the 2025 Revision of the World Urbanization Prospects, offering an overview of global urban transformation. It integrates worldwide and regional trends with detailed country-level insights spanning from 1950 to 2050, showing that the world is becoming increasingly urban, with cities now home to 45 per cent of the global population of 8.2 billion. This is more than double the share in 1950. The report summarizes the latest estimates of city, town and rural populations for 237 countries or areas from 1950 to 2025, with projections until 2050.
Click here for the full report.
The seminar will present new data sources and analysis from the UN Population Division on urbanization and potential environmental impacts on cities. The first presentation will provide an overview of results and key findings from the 2018 Revision of the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects.
The Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs organized an expert group meeting on population distribution, urbanization, internal migration and development. The meeting was held at the United Nations in New York from 21 to 23 January 2008.
