19 sub-Saharan countries are now mostly urban, up from 7
Countries where over half of people live in urban areas, 48 sub-Saharan countries, 2000 vs 2025. World Bank estimates.
- 1. By 2100, more than 1 in 3 people will be African
- 2. Nearly half the world's under-25s will be African by 2100
- 3. DR Congo is projected to outgrow the US by 2100
- 4. Kinshasa will soon be bigger than Paris and London combined
- 5. Two-thirds of the world's mobile money moves in Africa
- 6. Volcanic heat makes nearly 45% of the power Kenya generates
- 7. Africa's solar imports more than doubled since early 2024
- 8. DR Congo mines three-quarters of the world's cobalt
- 9. Most people in Africa are still offline
- 10. Africa formally recycles less than 1% of its e-waste
- 11. Ethiopia added over a third of Africa's new renewable power
- 12. Nigeria's cities now hold more people than Japan's
- 13. Sudan now has the world's most people displaced at home
- 14. Nigeria now has almost 25 million more people than Brazil
- 15. Six of the ten fastest-growing big cities are African
- 16. Africa now has more hungry people than Asia
- 17. Six in ten child deaths now happen in sub-Saharan Africa
- 18. Rwanda spread electricity faster than any country since 2014
- 19. Nigeria now eats more rice than Japan
- 20. More sub-Saharan Africans now have mobile money than bank accounts
- 21. Sub-Saharan Africa's cities now hold more people than Latin America's
- 22. DR Congo tripled its copper mining in ten years
- 23. Nitrogen dioxide over Khartoum fell 39% after war began
- 24. Countries mostly without electricity fell from 33 to 15
- 25. Seven in ten West African mobile money accounts sit idle
- 26. Nigeria became the third-biggest sender of students abroad
- 27. Guinea overtook Australia as the world's biggest bauxite miner
- 28. DR Congo passed Chile in refined copper
- 29. Burkina Faso now sends half its exports to the UAE
- 30. Nouakchott's mobile internet sped from Africa's slowest to top 30
- 31. Nigeria now imports more solar panels than generators
- 32. Zimbabwe climbed to fourth among the world's lithium miners
- 33. Services now employ twice as many Ghanaian women as farms
- 34. Sub-Saharan Africa doubled its grain, mostly by farming more land
- 35. Sub-Saharan Africa added more rural people than the whole world
- 36. France fell from first to third among Côte d'Ivoire's suppliers
- 37. China's car sales to Ethiopia are now mostly electric
- 38. Guinea rose from 17th to second for investment in Africa
- 39. Africa now mines three-quarters of the world's manganese
- 40. Tanzania rose from no graphite to world's third-biggest miner
- 41. DR Congo has more babies each year than the EU
- 42. More Malawians go online than have electricity at home
- 43. Nigeria is now Brazil's biggest supplier of urea fertiliser
- 44. 19 sub-Saharan countries are now mostly urban, up from 7
Sub-Saharan countries where most people live in urban areas, 2000 to 2025, of 48. None went back; 14 had crossed by 2015.
Nigeria's urban share. It joined Ghana (59%), Senegal (56%), Côte d'Ivoire (55%) and Cameroon (56%) among the 12 that crossed.
The region's urban share in 2025, up from 32.7%. Most of sub-Saharan Africa is still rural, but 19 of its 48 countries, two in five, no longer are.
the numbers & method
| Country | Value (%) |
|---|---|
| GAB | 92.1 |
| CPV | 77.6 |
| GNQ | 71.6 |
| AGO | 71.5 |
| STP | 69.2 |
| BWA | 68.0 |
| GMB | 65.0 |
| COG | 64.1 |
| NGA | 63.8 |
| ZAF | 63.8 |
| MRT | 61.5 |
| GHA | 58.9 |
| LBR | 56.1 |
| SEN | 55.8 |
| CMR | 55.7 |
| SOM | 55.1 |
| CIV | 54.5 |
| BEN | 53.4 |
| NAM | 50.9 |
| GNB | 46.7 |
| SLE | 45.9 |
| ZMB | 45.9 |
| SYC | 45.5 |
| COD | 45.1 |
| LSO | 44.7 |
| CAF | 44.6 |
| TGO | 44.4 |
| ZWE | 40.5 |
| MUS | 39.0 |
| GIN | 38.5 |
| MOZ | 37.2 |
| TZA | 36.9 |
| SDN | 34.9 |
| ERI | 34.5 |
| COM | 33.9 |
| MDG | 32.9 |
| KEN | 32.2 |
| MLI | 32.2 |
| UGA | 31.9 |
| RWA | 30.9 |
| BFA | 28.9 |
| TCD | 27.6 |
| SWZ | 26.7 |
| BDI | 25.7 |
| ETH | 24.1 |
| SSD | 21.7 |
| NER | 18.4 |
| MWI | 17.6 |
Claim types Estimate · Interpretation
World Bank, World Development Indicators (edition 8 Oct 2026): urban population (SP.URB.TOTL) and total population (SP.POP.TOTL), read from the World Bank API via the progrss vault (§4.11, wb-wdi passes value_checks). Urban share = urban population ÷ total population (progrss calculation). The World Bank's urban figures are estimates built on UN World Urbanization Prospects ratios and each country's own definition of 'urban', which differ between countries; recent years are projections from the last census (Nigeria's was in 2006), so 2025 values are Estimates. Set: all 48 countries the World Bank places in Sub-Saharan Africa, same set both years. Above 50% in 2000 (7): Angola, Botswana, Cabo Verde, Congo Rep., Gabon, São Tomé and Príncipe, South Africa. Crossed 50% by 2025 (12, yellow): Nigeria 43.3 to 63.8, Ghana 43.9 to 58.9, Côte d'Ivoire 43.1 to 54.5, Cameroon 46.2 to 55.7, Senegal 40.7 to 55.8, Benin 38.3 to 53.4, Liberia 43.8 to 56.1, Gambia 47.0 to 65.0, Mauritania 38.1 to 61.5, Somalia 33.1 to 55.1, Namibia 32.1 to 50.9, Equatorial Guinea 38.8 to 71.6. In 2015 the count was 14. Region-wide urban share (sum over the 48): 32.7% in 2000, 44.7% in 2025; urban population 222 million to 590 million. Interpretation in takeaway 3.
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