Country with the Largest Rural Population

Rural and urban population are complementary parts of the national-definition population split. Countries classify settlements according to their own official urban criteria; residents outside those urban categories are classified as rural. The UN Population Division compiles the historical estimates used by the World Bank.

In the World Bank's 2025 country table, India had approximately 941.4 million rural residents, substantially more than China and other countries. The indicator is a stock at a reference date, not a count of annual arrivals or departures from rural areas.

Under the same national-definition framework, the UN estimates India's urbanization level at about 35.7 percent in 2025. Classification changes, censuses and demography can change historical rural population estimates; retrospective comparisons should use a consistent revision.