Welcome to the United Nations 
Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Population Division
World Urbanization Prospects 2025
The WUP 2025 revision is planned for public launch in November 2025. Specifically, the scheduled launch date is Tuesday, November 18, 2025, at 12:45 PM (New York time).
The WUP 2025 is the 22nd edition of the series. The previous one was issued in 2018.
The WUP 2025 provides annual population estimates for the period 1950–2025 (estimates for land area and built-up area are available for 1975–2025) and projections up to 2050. This revision supersedes all previous estimates and projections published by the United Nations.
The WUP 2025 presents estimates and projections for 237 countries and areas of the world. Crucially, it provides population estimates for over 12,000 cities with 50,000 inhabitants or more in 2025.
For the first time, this edition integrates a harmonized geospatial methodology — the Degree of Urbanization (DEGURBA) — to measure urbanization alongside traditional national definitions. The report also features new analyses examining the built-up area per capita and city population density. The revision leverages extra information on recent levels and trends derived from the results of the 2020 round of censuses. The underlying national estimates used census data or estimates referring to 2019 or later for 155 countries and areas, providing a much richer empirical base than previous revisions.
Yes, the WUP 2025 significantly expands geographical coverage by lowering the minimum population threshold for cities from 300,000 inhabitants (used in WUP 2018) to 50,000 inhabitants. This increased the number of urban centres analyzed to over 12,000 for 2025.
The WUP 2025 report was prepared by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The underlying data related to the Degree of Urbanization were prepared by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC).
The data in the WUP 2025 revision are consistent with the total populations of countries and areas estimated and projected according to the medium variant of the World Population Prospects 2024 (WPP 2024).
Disclaimer: This web site contains data tables, figures, maps, analyses and technical notes from the 2025 Revision of the World Urbanization Prospects. These documents do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.