China vs World: Rural population

China
473.41 million
in 2025
World
3.46 billion
in 2025
China rank
2nd
World rank
1st

Rural population over time

  • China
  • World
01.0B2.0B3.0B196019922025

How they compare

World currently reports 3.46 billion against 473.41 million in China, a difference of 2.99 billion.

That makes World's figure about 7.3 times China's.

Across all 66 years both countries report, World has been ahead every year.

China ranks 2nd and World ranks 1st of 215 countries.

Individual pages

About this data

Indicator
Rural population
Source
World Urbanization Prospects, United Nations (UN)
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)
Coverage
264 places, 17,394 data points, 1960–2025
Last refreshed

Rural population refers to people living in rural areas as defined by national statistical offices. It is calculated as the difference between total population and urban population. Aggregation of urban and rural population may not add up to total population because of different country coverages.