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work people do. This makes these figures most useful for tracking change within a single country over time. Cross-country comparisons should be treated with caution.","The UN now publishes these national-definitions estimates mainly for continuity with earlier statistics. For cross-country comparisons, a better choice is the [Degree of Urbanization (DEGURBA)](https://human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu/degurbaDefinitions.php) framework, which applies the same density and settlement-size thresholds everywhere. Our charts using [DEGURBA data](https://ourworldindata.org/search?datasetProducts=Global+Human+Settlement+Layer+Dataset) use this harmonized standard."],"origins":[{"id":12555,"titleSnapshot":"World Urbanization Prospects 2025 - Urban and Rural Population (File 14)","title":"World Urbanization Prospects 2025 - Urban and Rural Population by National Definition","descriptionSnapshot":"File 14 contains population data by national urban definition. Data are presented in three sheets: Rural, Urban, and Total population, with values in thousands for each year from 1950 to 2050.","description":"Population estimates and projections for urban and rural areas based on national definitions of urban areas. The dataset provides population data in thousands at mid-year by region, subregion, country and area from 1950 to 2050.\n\nNational definitions of \"urban\" vary considerably from country to country. Criteria such as population size, population density, type of economic activity, physical characteristics, level of infrastructure, or a combination of these may be used to define urban areas.","producer":"United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division","citationFull":"United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2025). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2025 Revision, Online Edition. POP/DB/WUP/Rev.2025/F14","urlMain":"https://population.un.org/wup/","urlDownload":"https://population.un.org/wup/assets/Download/Countries%20and%20Aggregates/WUP2025-F14-National-Definitions_Pop_by_category.xlsx","dateAccessed":"2026-02-17","datePublished":"2025","license":{"url":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/","name":"CC BY 3.0 IGO"}}]}