Record #00285Human Society archive
Country with the Largest Urban Population
According to the UN World Urbanization Prospects 2025, China had an estimated 939.481 million urban residents in 2025 under the national-definition measure, the largest country total.
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Current Record
about939.481 millionpeople
Current record value
- Holder
- China
- Location
- China
- Start date
- 2025-07-01
- Record status
- Verified · currentReport an issue
Overview
Archive NoteThe UN Population Division presents two different views of urbanization in its 2025 revision: national-definition estimates of urban populations, and geospatially harmonized categories of cities, towns and rural areas. This record uses the national-definition series in Annex Table A2 rather than mixing the two methods.
In the 2025 revision, China's urban population grew from 462.534 million in 2000 to 939.481 million in 2025. India's comparable 2025 figure was 522.441 million, well below China's total.
The report notes that China has revised administrative and statistical classifications of urban areas over time. Urban population growth reflects migration, natural increase and reclassification, not just moves from rural areas into cities.
Record history
1 Milestones- about 939.481 million peopleChinaChinaCurrent Record
Sources
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