[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"question:76:en-US":3},{"metadata":4,"sys":15,"fields":35},{"tags":5,"concepts":14},[6,11],{"sys":7},{"type":8,"linkType":9,"id":10},"Link","Tag","global",{"sys":12},{"type":8,"linkType":9,"id":13},"sustainableCities",[],{"space":16,"id":20,"type":21,"createdAt":22,"updatedAt":23,"environment":24,"publishedVersion":28,"revision":29,"contentType":30,"locale":34},{"sys":17},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"Space","ghhpjogyw4x7","f2a98a0cc440c4a0cef60da544ddb4bd","Entry","2021-11-11T07:10:14.726Z","2025-09-16T07:30:21.499Z",{"sys":25},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},"master","Environment",123,39,{"sys":31},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":33},"ContentType","question","en-US",{"globalId":36,"answers":37,"answersAsImages":57,"wrongPercentage":94,"name":95,"questionText":96,"statistics":97,"veryWrongStatistics":129,"correctSentence":161,"youWereWrong":162,"youWereRight":163,"dataSourceShortText":164,"dataSourceLinkLongText":165,"extendedAnswerText":166,"headingVeryWrong":167,"youWereVeryWrong":162,"headingWrong":167},"76",[38,60,77],{"metadata":39,"sys":42,"fields":55},{"tags":40,"concepts":41},[],[],{"space":43,"id":45,"type":21,"createdAt":46,"updatedAt":47,"environment":48,"publishedVersion":50,"revision":51,"contentType":52,"locale":34},{"sys":44},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"91cf97ce06992d9099fdfe32211e4128","2021-11-11T06:55:33.877Z","2024-08-28T08:59:58.221Z",{"sys":49},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},36,32,{"sys":53},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},"answer",{"globalId":56,"correctAnswer":57,"isVeryWrong":58,"answerText":59},"76-a1",false,true,"Almost halved",{"metadata":61,"sys":64,"fields":74},{"tags":62,"concepts":63},[],[],{"space":65,"id":67,"type":21,"createdAt":68,"updatedAt":69,"environment":70,"publishedVersion":50,"revision":51,"contentType":72,"locale":34},{"sys":66},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"534831750dfb34e6ebdb786c7d00ba48","2021-11-11T06:55:35.712Z","2024-08-28T08:59:58.255Z",{"sys":71},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},{"sys":73},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},{"globalId":75,"correctAnswer":57,"isVeryWrong":57,"answerText":76},"76-a2","Stayed about the same",{"metadata":78,"sys":81,"fields":91},{"tags":79,"concepts":80},[],[],{"space":82,"id":84,"type":21,"createdAt":85,"updatedAt":86,"environment":87,"publishedVersion":50,"revision":51,"contentType":89,"locale":34},{"sys":83},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"5dfae54dd036d0fcb8643c1166464878","2021-11-11T06:55:37.091Z","2024-08-28T08:59:58.292Z",{"sys":88},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},{"sys":90},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},{"globalId":92,"correctAnswer":58,"isVeryWrong":57,"answerText":93},"76-a3","Almost doubled",82,"Urban vs rural since 1950s","Worldwide, more than 5 times more people live in towns and cities today than in 1950. What happened to the rural population?",[98,99,100,101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109,110,111,112,113,114,115,116,117,118,119,120,121,122,123,124,125,126,127,128],"uk 0.8251","usa 0.8152","arg 0.746","aus 0.8312","bel 0.8323","bra 0.816","can 0.8012","chn 0.909","fra 0.8222","deu 0.8921","hun 0.906","idn 0.6786","ita 0.8111","jpn 0.9321","mex 0.546","pol 0.8843","rus 0.9561","sau 0.7785","sgp 0.8429","kor 0.9561","esp 0.8941","swe 0.9301","tur 0.9363","mys 0.8448","egy 0.6068","are 0.7425","col 0.624","rou 0.9042","per 0.5419","jor 0.8294","mar 0.8426",[130,131,132,133,134,135,136,137,138,139,140,141,142,143,144,145,146,147,148,149,150,151,152,153,154,155,156,157,158,159,160],"uk 0.5584","usa 0.5475","arg 0.5580","aus 0.5834","bel 0.4950","bra 0.6180","can 0.5944","chn 0.7666","fra 0.6733","deu 0.6503","hun 0.7440","idn 0.4471","ita 0.6205","jpn 0.7912","mex 0.36","pol 0.7106","rus 0.8603","sau 0.5250","sgp 0.6302","kor 0.8503","esp 0.7882","swe 0.7904","tur 0.8546","mys 0.6169","egy 0.4571","are 0.4551","col 0.4660","rou 0.8104","per 0.3824","jor 0.7559","mar 0.7430","The world’s rural population has nearly doubled since 1950.","When we have two groups, and one increases, we automatically think the other will decrease. But both urban and rural populations increased, because the total world population increased.\n","They don’t realize both urban and rural populations can increase at the same time when the population grows. ","Source: UN","Different countries have very different definitions of what is urban and what is rural, for instance how many people need to live in a village for it to be urban and not rural? The UN uses the estimates based on each country’s national definition which means that the data coming from different countries is not directly comparable, but the UN still pools it into one global average.\n\nThere is skepticism among some experts about the UN’s method of just taking data from each country since the definitions vary so much. But no matter how you count, it’s clear that our correct answer still stands: as the urban population has been increasing, so too has the rural population.[1]\n\nExperts who find this lack of clear definition problematic are working on new ways to define what’s urban and what’s rural. One suggested method includes satellite imagery, using the density of buildings and density of people as a criteria for determining whether a place is urban or rural.\n\n[1]  [UN Population Division (World Urbanization Prospects 2018)](https:\u002F\u002Fpopulation.un.org\u002Fwup\u002F)  \n[2]  [Gapminder calculations based on the UN’s World Population Prospects 2018 ](https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.google.com\u002Fspreadsheets\u002Fd\u002F1yyTwoT0VhHPHcg5qqHWY2F5QhiQEbMAJ3MjZxqllf2w\u002Fedit#gid=1093822345)  ","The world’s rural population went from 1.8 billion in 1950 to 3.4 billion in 2022. \n\nThe urban and rural populations have BOTH grown because the world’s population increased from 2.5 billion in 1950 to 7.9 billion today. \n\nUp until 2007, a majority of the world’s population still lived in rural areas, but the world is becoming more urbanized and the rural population is actually expected to start decreasing after 2021. \n\n### Why is it a problem that people are wrong about this?\nThe competition for land has increased in many rural areas of the world. This means that it has become more important to keep track of who owns which lot of land, as the number of people has increased in rural places. Many parts of the world need better systems to keep track of land ownership to ensure that poor farmers have the right to their land. Land reforms have become more important, as more people are competing for the same fields. People who believe the rural population has generally decreased, assume there is now rural land in abundance. They don't realize the importance of stopping so-called land grabs, where big companies or governments buy or capture the right to land without compensating local communities and the increasing population that depends on the land.\n\n### Why are people wrong about this?\nThis intuitive mistake is common whenever we divide a total population into two groups, and we learn that one of the groups is increasing. If we don’t think twice, we assume the other group must be decreasing. We tend to forget that the total number may have increased. People are aware that the world is more urbanized today than before. They know that the urban share has increased and the rural share has decreased. But that is a question of shares. This question is about amounts. In terms of amounts, both groups increased, because the total population increased so much. \n\n### Can I trust the data?\nYes, the trend we ask about is definitely correct, while the actual number of rural dwellers is disputed. Different countries have very different definitions of what is urban and what is rural, and the numbers we use come from estimates based on each country’s national definition, which is what the UN uses. Some experts we talked to are skeptical about the UN’s method of just taking data reported from each country, but they are not skeptical about the magnitude of the trends. Even if all countries used the same criteria for the border between urban and rural areas, it’s clear that our correct answer still stands: as the urban population has been increasing, so has the rural population.\n\n### Find out more\nThe UN’s [World Urbanization report from 2018](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.un.org\u002Fen\u002Fdevelopment\u002Fdesa\u002Fpopulation\u002Ftheme\u002Furbanization\u002Findex.asp)\n\nExplore homes on [Dollar Street](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gapminder.org\u002Fdollar-street\u002F?topic=homes&media=image) to see the differences in how people in urban and rural places live on different income levels all over the World. \n\nTake a look at [Gapminder tools](https:\u002F\u002Fgapm.io\u002Frurpop) where you can see the size of country’s population living in urban and rural areas since the 1960s. \n","Rural population also increased"]