Samoa vs Sri Lanka: Do more people live in urban or rural areas?
Samoa
17.5%
in 2025
Sri Lanka
20.5%
in 2025
Samoa rank
233rd
Sri Lanka rank
230th
Do more people live in urban or rural areas? over time
- Samoa
- Sri Lanka
How they compare
Sri Lanka currently reports 20.5% against 17.5% in Samoa, a difference of 3.0%.
That makes Sri Lanka's figure about 1.2 times Samoa's.
The two have swapped places 4 times across 108 shared years of data; in 1000 it was Sri Lanka ahead.
Samoa ranks 233rd and Sri Lanka ranks 230th of 238 countries.
Across the 40 decades both report, Samoa averaged higher in 5 and Sri Lanka in 35.
Head to head by decade
| Decade | Samoa | Sri Lanka | Difference | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1000s | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | Sri Lanka |
| 1100s | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | Sri Lanka |
| 1200s | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | Sri Lanka |
| 1300s | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | Sri Lanka |
| 1400s | 0.0% | 0.1% | 0.1% | Sri Lanka |
| 1500s | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.2% | Sri Lanka |
| 1600s | 0.0% | 0.5% | 0.5% | Sri Lanka |
| 1700s | 0.0% | 1.6% | 1.6% | Sri Lanka |
| 1710s | 0.3% | 1.8% | 1.5% | Sri Lanka |
| 1720s | 0.4% | 2.0% | 1.6% | Sri Lanka |
| 1730s | 0.4% | 2.1% | 1.7% | Sri Lanka |
| 1740s | 0.5% | 2.3% | 1.8% | Sri Lanka |
| 1750s | 0.6% | 2.6% | 2.0% | Sri Lanka |
| 1760s | 0.7% | 2.8% | 2.1% | Sri Lanka |
| 1770s | 0.8% | 3.1% | 2.3% | Sri Lanka |
| 1780s | 0.9% | 3.4% | 2.4% | Sri Lanka |
| 1790s | 1.1% | 3.7% | 2.6% | Sri Lanka |
| 1800s | 1.3% | 4.0% | 2.8% | Sri Lanka |
| 1810s | 1.5% | 4.4% | 2.9% | Sri Lanka |
| 1820s | 1.7% | 4.9% | 3.1% | Sri Lanka |
| 1830s | 2.0% | 5.3% | 3.3% | Sri Lanka |
| 1840s | 2.4% | 5.8% | 3.5% | Sri Lanka |
| 1850s | 2.8% | 6.4% | 3.6% | Sri Lanka |
| 1860s | 3.2% | 7.0% | 3.8% | Sri Lanka |
| 1870s | 3.8% | 7.7% | 3.9% | Sri Lanka |
| 1880s | 4.4% | 8.4% | 4.0% | Sri Lanka |
| 1890s | 5.1% | 9.2% | 4.1% | Sri Lanka |
| 1900s | 6.0% | 10.1% | 4.1% | Sri Lanka |
| 1910s | 7.0% | 11.0% | 4.1% | Sri Lanka |
| 1920s | 8.1% | 12.1% | 3.9% | Sri Lanka |
| 1930s | 9.5% | 13.2% | 3.7% | Sri Lanka |
| 1940s | 11.0% | 14.5% | 3.4% | Sri Lanka |
| 1950s | 16.8% | 15.8% | 1.0% | Samoa |
| 1960s | 19.3% | 19.7% | 0.4% | Sri Lanka |
| 1970s | 20.9% | 22.2% | 1.3% | Sri Lanka |
| 1980s | 20.8% | 20.3% | 0.5% | Samoa |
| 1990s | 21.5% | 16.2% | 5.3% | Samoa |
| 2000s | 21.3% | 15.3% | 6.0% | Samoa |
| 2010s | 19.2% | 18.6% | 0.6% | Samoa |
| 2020s | 17.6% | 20.1% | 2.5% | Sri Lanka |
Averages of every year both report within each decade.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has higher do more people live in urban or rural areas?, Samoa or Sri Lanka?
- Sri Lanka, at 20.5% against 17.5% in Samoa as of 2025.
- What is the difference in do more people live in urban or rural areas? between Samoa and Sri Lanka?
- 3.0%, with Sri Lanka ahead.
- How many years of comparable data are there for Samoa and Sri Lanka?
- 108 years are reported by both, from 1000 to 2025.
- How do Samoa and Sri Lanka rank globally for do more people live in urban or rural areas??
- Samoa ranks 233rd and Sri Lanka ranks 230th of 238 countries.
- Where does this data come from?
- HYDE (2023); United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data, published as Do more people live in urban or rural areas?. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.
Individual pages
About this data
Share of the population living in urban areas, combining UN estimates with modeled historical data.