Western Europe: urbanization rate by country 1500-1890| ��ƽ��

Share of the population living in towns of more than 10,000 people in selected countries of Western Europe in years between 1500 and 1890

Characteristic	1500	1600	1700	1800	1890
England & Wales	3.1%	5.8%	13.3%	20.3%	61.9%
Scotland	1.6%	3%	5.3%	17.3%	50.3%
Belgium	21.1%	18.8%	23.9%	18.9%	34.5%
Netherlands	15.8%	24.3%	33.6%	28.8%	33.4%
Portugal	3%	14.1%	11.5%	8.7%	12.7%
Germany	3.2%	4.1%	4.8%	5.5%	28.2%
France	4.2%	5.9%	9.2%	8.8%	25.9%
Italy	14.9%	16.8%	14.7%	18.3%	21.2%
Ireland	0%	0%	3.4%	7%	17.6%
Switzerland	1.5%	2.5%	3.3%	3.7%	16%
Spain	6.1%	11.4%	9%	11.1%	26.8%
Scandinavia	0.9%	1.4%	4%	4.6%	13.2%
Western Europe: Average*	6.1%	7.8%	9.9%	10.6%	31.3%

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Release date

2009

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Region

Worldwide, China, India, Japan, Russia

Survey time period

1800

Supplementary notes

*Not including Portugal and Spain.

Citation formats

In the year 1500, the share of Western Europe's population living in urban areas was just six percent, but this rose to 31 percent by the end of the 19^th century. Despite this drastic change, development was quite slow between 1500 and 1800, and it was not until the industrial revolution when there was a spike in urbanization. As Britain was the first region to undergo the industrial revolution, from around the 1760s until the 1840s, these areas were the most urbanized in Europe by 1890.

The Low Countries

Prior to the 19^th century, Belgium and the Netherlands had been the most urbanized regions due to the legacy of their proto-industrial areas in the medieval period, and then the growth of their port cities during the Netherlands' empirical expansion (Belgium was a part of the Netherlands until the 1830s). Belgium was also quick to industrialize in the 1800s, and saw faster development than its larger, more economically powerful neighbors, France and Germany.

Least-urban areas

Ireland was the only Western European region with virtually no urbanization in the 16^th and 17^th century, but the industrial growth of Belfast and Dublin (then major port cities of the British Empire) saw this change by the late-1800s. The region of Scandinavia was the least-urbanized area in Western Europe by 1890, but it saw rapid economic growth in Europe during the first half of the following century.