World Bank Open Data · CC BY 4.0 Some World Bank indicators are published with a lag. The site always shows the latest actually available year for each country and indicator.
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Countries with the highest
Rural population (% of total population)

In 2021, Papua New Guinea leads Rural population (% of total population) with 86. Liechtenstein follows at 85, and the gap between the top two positions is 0. This page is built for long-tail search demand and links to archives and country profiles.

Year archive

Latest available year 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020

Ranking leaders

0.021.442.864.285.6Papua New GuineaPapua New Guinea: 8685.6LiechtensteinLiechtenstein: 8585.3MalawiMalawi: 8483.5NigerNiger: 8382.8SamoaSamoa: 8282.4Sri LankaSri Lanka: 8080.2South SudanSouth Sudan: 8079.5BurundiBurundi: 7978.9TongaTonga: 7978.7EthiopiaEthiopia: 7877.9VanuatuVanuatu: 7877.7Micronesia, Fed. Sts.Micronesia, Fed. Sts.: 7877.6

Full table

#CountryValue
151 Cuba 23
152 Marshall Islands 22
153 Colombia 22
154 Costa Rica 22
155 Belarus 22
156 Greece 22
157 France 21
158 Mexico 21
159 Palau 21
160 Spain 20
161 United States 20
162 Oman 20
163 Korea, Rep. 19
164 Bahamas, The 19
165 Germany 18
166 Canada 18
167 American Samoa 18
168 Norway 17
169 United Kingdom 17
170 New Zealand 16
171 Peru 16
172 Saudi Arabia 16
173 Switzerland 16
174 United Arab Emirates 15
175 West Bank and Gaza 14
176 Brazil 13
177 Australia 13
178 Belgium 13
179 Greenland 12
180 Libya 12
181 Sweden 12
182 Denmark 12
183 Chile 12
184 Andorra 11
185 Turkiye 11
186 Venezuela, RB 11
187 Lebanon 10
188 Gabon 9
189 Curacao 9
190 Israel 8
191 Northern Mariana Islands 8
192 Japan 8
193 Argentina 8
194 Jordan 8
195 Turks and Caicos Islands 7
196 Puerto Rico (US) 6
197 Guam 6
198 Iceland 6
199 Luxembourg 5
200 Netherlands 5

Analytical takeaways

  • Papua New Guinea leads the global ranking for Rural population (% of total population) in 2021, with a lead of 0 over the next country.
  • The visible slice on this page covers 12 countries, and the lower edge of that slice currently sits with Micronesia, Fed. Sts. at 78.
  • The ranking page acts as a high-intent entry point into country+indicator pages, year archives, and thematic collections.