Urban population share in Papua New Guinea

15.8% of people in Papua New Guinea lived in urban areas in 2025. The value for 2025 is the highest in the series, which starts in 1960.

Measure: Urban population share Unit: % of total population Data: 1960 to 2025 Source: World Bank
Papua New Guinea, 2025 15.8% % of total population
Change from 2024 +0.4percentage points 2024: 15.4%
World, 2025 57.8% Official aggregate
Position in 2025 216th of 217 See the full ranking

Urban population share in Papua New Guinea over time

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Papua New Guinea World ×

% of total population. Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators. Gaps mean no published value; points are not joined across missing years.

Urban population share (% of total population), 2001 to 2025
Period Papua New GuineaWorld
2025 15.8% 57.8%
2024 15.4% 57.6%
2023 15.1% 57.3%
2022 14.7% 57.1%
2021 14.4% 56.8%
2020 14.2% 56.4%
2019 13.9% 56.1%
2018 13.7% 55.8%
2017 13.5% 55.3%
2016 13.4% 54.9%
2015 13.2% 54.4%
2014 13.1% 53.9%
2013 13.1% 53.4%
2012 13.0% 52.9%
2011 13.0% 52.5%
2010 13.0% 51.8%
2009 13.0% 51.4%
2008 13.0% 50.9%
2007 13.0% 50.4%
2006 13.0% 49.9%
2005 13.1% 49.4%
2004 13.1% 48.9%
2003 13.1% 48.4%
2002 13.2% 47.8%
2001 13.2% 47.3%

A dash means no value was published for that period.

In short

  • That is a change of +0.4 percentage points from 15.4% in 2024.
  • Since 2015, when it was 13.2%, the figure has changed by +2.5 percentage points.
  • Among the 217 countries with data for 2025, Papua New Guinea has the 216th highest value.
  • The figure for the world in 2025 was 57.8%.

More for Papua New Guinea

All statistics for Papua New Guinea

Source and dates

Original producer
United Nations Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects
Distributed by
World Bank, World Development Indicators
Dataset or series code
SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS · dataset details · view at source
Observation period
1960 to 2025 for Papua New Guinea
Provider update
8 October 2026
Retrieved
9 November 2026
Published here
9 November 2026
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (per series metadata)
Attribution
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators, original data: United Nations Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects