Of the people who say they live in a small town or a village, 83% classified in those two degrees of urbanisation. Small towns and villages fall primarily into two Degrees of Urbanisation: towns and semi-dense areas and rural areas, respectively. Of the people who say they live in rural areas or on a farm, 75% are classified as in a rural area by the Degree of Urbanisation. Of the people who say they live in a large city, 80% are classified as in a city. The perceived level of urbanisation reported in the Gallup World Poll in these 115 countries tends to match the Degree of Urbanisation (Figure 1). This explains some of the differences between our results and those presented in chapter 4. Because the Gallup World Poll mostly uses telephone interviews in high-income countries, only 11 high-income countries could be included. The countries covered by our data include the United States plus all countries where face-to-face interviews are used. The years 2019 to 2022 will also be coded in this way. The Gallup World Poll data in 115 countries (see annex for the list) was coded by Degree of Urbanisation for the years 2016, 20. Instead of relying on only two classes, this new method uses three classes to capture the urban-rural continuum: 1) Cities, 2) Towns and semi-dense areas and 3) Rural areas. This work was presented to the UN Statistical Commission and endorsed on 5 March 2020.

Six international organisations (EU, FAO, ILO, OECD, UN-Habitat and World Bank) have developed a new harmonised definition that can be applied to every country in the world, called the Degree of Urbanisation. The longstanding lack of a global definition of urban and rural areas is an obstacle to reliably comparing these areas across national borders. Life evaluation, feelings and making friends by Degree of Urbanisation.

What is a global city definitoion