See what a high band reads like.

P1The bar chart shows the proportion of the population living in urban areas in six countries in 2010 and 2020.

P2Overall, urbanisation increased in all six countries over the decade, with Brazil, the UK, and the USA maintaining the highest shares throughout. India remained the least urbanised country in both years, while China recorded the largest increase of the group.

P3In 2010, Brazil was the most urbanised at 84.34%, closely followed by the UK at 81% and the USA at 80.7%. China and Nigeria were in the middle of the range at 49.23% and 51.68% respectively, while India had the lowest share at 30.9%. By 2020, the rankings at the top were largely unchanged: Brazil rose to 86.91%, the UK to 82.9%, and the USA fell marginally to 80%.

P4China's urban population share increased from 49.23% to 63.52%, a rise of more than 14 percentage points and the largest absolute gain among the six countries. Nigeria also grew notably from 51.68% to 59.77%. India's share, while rising from 30.9% to 34.13%, remained the lowest in 2020. Despite universal growth in urbanisation, the gap between Brazil and India actually widened over the period, from around 53 percentage points in 2010 to approximately 53 percentage points in 2020.