China vs India: Urban area over the long-term

China
89,331 km² per grid cell
in 2025
India
42,636 km² per grid cell
in 2025
China rank
2nd
India rank
3rd

Urban area over the long-term over time

  • China
  • India
020.0k40.0k60.0k80.0k100015122025

How they compare

China currently reports 89,331 km² per grid cell against 42,636 km² per grid cell in India, a difference of 46,695 km² per grid cell.

That makes China's figure about 2.1 times India's.

The two have swapped places 3 times across 108 shared years of data; in 1000 it was India ahead.

China ranks 2nd and India ranks 3rd of 202 countries.

Individual pages

About this data

Indicator
Urban area over the long-term
Unit
km² per grid cell
Source
HYDE (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
202 places, 21,816 data points, 1000–2025
Last refreshed

Total built-up area of a country over time.