Tonga vs Vanuatu: Do more people live in urban or rural areas?
Tonga
21.2%
in 2025
Vanuatu
22.3%
in 2025
Tonga rank
229th
Vanuatu rank
227th
Do more people live in urban or rural areas? over time
- Tonga
- Vanuatu
How they compare
Vanuatu currently reports 22.3% against 21.2% in Tonga, a difference of 1.1%.
That makes Vanuatu's figure about 1.1 times Tonga's.
The two have swapped places 2 times across 108 shared years of data; in 1000 it was Vanuatu ahead.
Tonga ranks 229th and Vanuatu ranks 227th of 238 countries.
Across the 40 decades both report, Tonga averaged higher in 11 and Vanuatu in 21.
Head to head by decade
| Decade | Tonga | Vanuatu | Difference | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1000s | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | — |
| 1100s | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | — |
| 1200s | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | — |
| 1300s | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | — |
| 1400s | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | — |
| 1500s | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | — |
| 1600s | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | — |
| 1700s | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.0% | — |
| 1710s | 0.1% | 0.2% | 0.2% | Vanuatu |
| 1720s | 0.1% | 0.3% | 0.2% | Vanuatu |
| 1730s | 0.1% | 0.3% | 0.2% | Vanuatu |
| 1740s | 0.1% | 0.3% | 0.2% | Vanuatu |
| 1750s | 0.1% | 0.4% | 0.3% | Vanuatu |
| 1760s | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0.3% | Vanuatu |
| 1770s | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0.3% | Vanuatu |
| 1780s | 0.3% | 0.6% | 0.3% | Vanuatu |
| 1790s | 0.4% | 0.7% | 0.4% | Vanuatu |
| 1800s | 0.5% | 0.9% | 0.4% | Vanuatu |
| 1810s | 0.6% | 1.0% | 0.4% | Vanuatu |
| 1820s | 0.7% | 1.2% | 0.5% | Vanuatu |
| 1830s | 0.9% | 1.4% | 0.5% | Vanuatu |
| 1840s | 1.1% | 1.6% | 0.5% | Vanuatu |
| 1850s | 1.4% | 1.9% | 0.5% | Vanuatu |
| 1860s | 1.7% | 2.2% | 0.5% | Vanuatu |
| 1870s | 2.2% | 2.5% | 0.4% | Vanuatu |
| 1880s | 2.7% | 3.0% | 0.3% | Vanuatu |
| 1890s | 3.4% | 3.5% | 0.1% | Vanuatu |
| 1900s | 4.2% | 4.0% | 0.2% | Tonga |
| 1910s | 5.3% | 4.7% | 0.6% | Tonga |
| 1920s | 6.6% | 5.5% | 1.1% | Tonga |
| 1930s | 8.2% | 6.4% | 1.8% | Tonga |
| 1940s | 10.3% | 7.5% | 2.8% | Tonga |
| 1950s | 15.6% | 6.6% | 8.9% | Tonga |
| 1960s | 19.6% | 9.3% | 10.3% | Tonga |
| 1970s | 20.3% | 12.7% | 7.6% | Tonga |
| 1980s | 21.3% | 16.7% | 4.6% | Tonga |
| 1990s | 22.7% | 20.1% | 2.6% | Tonga |
| 2000s | 23.2% | 22.9% | 0.2% | Tonga |
| 2010s | 23.1% | 24.6% | 1.5% | Vanuatu |
| 2020s | 21.3% | 22.3% | 1.0% | Vanuatu |
Averages of every year both report within each decade.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has higher do more people live in urban or rural areas?, Tonga or Vanuatu?
- Vanuatu, at 22.3% against 21.2% in Tonga as of 2025.
- What is the difference in do more people live in urban or rural areas? between Tonga and Vanuatu?
- 1.1%, with Vanuatu ahead.
- How many years of comparable data are there for Tonga and Vanuatu?
- 108 years are reported by both, from 1000 to 2025.
- How do Tonga and Vanuatu rank globally for do more people live in urban or rural areas??
- Tonga ranks 229th and Vanuatu ranks 227th 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.