China vs United States: Urban area over the long-term

China
89,331 km² per grid cell
in 2025
United States
230,837 km² per grid cell
in 2025
China rank
2nd
United States rank
1st

Urban area over the long-term over time

  • China
  • United States
050.0k100.0k150.0k200.0k250.0k100015122025

How they compare

United States currently reports 230,837 km² per grid cell against 89,331 km² per grid cell in China, a difference of 141,506 km² per grid cell.

That makes United States's figure about 2.6 times China's.

The two have swapped places 1 time across 108 shared years of data; in 1000 it was China ahead.

China ranks 2nd and United States ranks 1st 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.