World Urbanization Prospects 2025 - Press Conference | World Population Prospects 2025

Press Briefing by Mr. Bjørg Sandkjær, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), along with Mr. John Wilmoth, Director, Population Division, UN DESA, and Ms. Sara Hertog, Population Affairs Officer, Population Division, UN DESA. They brief journalists on the World Urbanization Prospects 2025: Summary of Results. -------------------- “Fast-growing Dhaka, Bangladesh, will surpass Jakarta to become the world's largest city by 2050,” The United Nations on Tuesday unveiled its World Urbanization Prospects 2025, outlining how population growth and shifting settlement patterns will reshape cities, towns and rural areas over the coming decades. Bjørg Sandkjær, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) emphasized that “sustainable development requires integrated planning that treats cities, towns and rural areas as interconnected and interdependent,” adding that policies must “recognize the unique role of all settlement types” and be tailored to their specific needs. She also underscored the importance of data-driven decision-making. “Timely and reliable data are going to effective planning,” she said, noting that regular censuses and the integration of geospatial and statistical information can enable better monitoring of settlement patterns and access to services. Indicators tracking population density and built-up land per capita, she added, “provide useful information about human interactions with the environment.” John Wilmoth, Director of the Population Division, said the release provides estimates and projections based on a new standard methodology called the Degree of Urbanization, which maps population data into one-square-kilometer grid cells and classifies all land areas into seven categories ranging from mostly uninhabited rural areas to densely populated cities. Sara Hertog, a Population Affairs Officer with DESA, detailed the report’s latest demographic findings. “In 2025, 45 per cent of the world's 8.2 billion people live in cities, 36 per cent live in towns, and the remaining 19 per cent live in rural areas,” she said. By 2050, “two thirds of the growth of the world's population will occur in cities,” with most of the rest happening in towns. The global rural population, she noted, is expected to peak in the 2040s before gradually declining. Hertog added that “cities have more people than either towns or rural areas in 104 countries or areas,” representing nearly half of all locations for which UN estimates were produced. She also highlighted the concentration of mega-cities in Asia. “Jakarta, Indonesia, with nearly 42 million inhabitants, is the world's most populous city today,” she said, but projections indicate that “fast-growing Dhaka, Bangladesh, will surpass Jakarta to become the world's largest city by 2050.”


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