Mali vs Zimbabwe: Number of people living in cities, towns and rural areas

Mali
11.49 million people
in 2020
Zimbabwe
10.31 million people
in 2020
Mali rank
31st
Zimbabwe rank
34th

Number of people living in cities, towns and rural areas over time

  • Mali
  • Zimbabwe
2.0M4.0M6.0M8.0M10.0M12.0M195019852020

How they compare

Mali currently reports 11.49 million people against 10.31 million people in Zimbabwe, a difference of 1.19 million people.

That makes Mali's figure about 1.1 times Zimbabwe's.

The two have swapped places 2 times across 15 shared years of data; in 1950 it was Mali ahead.

Mali ranks 31st and Zimbabwe ranks 34th of 236 countries.

Across the 8 decades both report, Mali averaged higher in 7 and Zimbabwe in 1.

Head to head by decade

Decade Mali Zimbabwe Difference Ahead
1950s 3.45 million people 2.30 million people 1.15 million people Mali
1960s 3.93 million people 2.99 million people 943,735 people Mali
1970s 4.51 million people 3.84 million people 670,250 people Mali
1980s 5.43 million people 5.17 million people 257,255 people Mali
1990s 6.43 million people 6.62 million people 188,790 people Zimbabwe
2000s 7.69 million people 7.61 million people 72,430 people Mali
2010s 9.70 million people 8.82 million people 877,150 people Mali
2020s 11.49 million people 10.31 million people 1.19 million people Mali

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher number of people living in cities, towns and rural areas, Mali or Zimbabwe?
Mali, at 11.49 million people against 10.31 million people in Zimbabwe as of 2020.
What is the difference in number of people living in cities, towns and rural areas between Mali and Zimbabwe?
1.19 million people, with Mali ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for Mali and Zimbabwe?
15 years are reported by both, from 1950 to 2020.
How do Mali and Zimbabwe rank globally for number of people living in cities, towns and rural areas?
Mali ranks 31st and Zimbabwe ranks 34th of 236 countries.
Where does this data come from?
European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as Number of people living in cities, towns and rural areas. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

Individual pages

Share, cite or embed this page

Cite this page

Mali vs Zimbabwe: Number of people living in cities, towns and rural areas. Statizoid, drawing on European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data. Retrieved 01 September 2026, from https://population.statizoid.com/compare/population-of-cities-towns-and-villages/mali/zimbabwe/

Embed or link this data

Paste this into a page to link back to these figures. The data itself is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data); please keep the attribution.

<a href="https://population.statizoid.com/compare/population-of-cities-towns-and-villages/mali/zimbabwe/">Mali vs Zimbabwe: Number of people living in cities, towns and rural areas</a> — Statizoid

About this data

Indicator
Number of people living in cities, towns and rural areas
Unit
people
Source
European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
236 places, 3,540 data points, 1950–2020
Last refreshed

Estimated number of people living in rural areas. Rural areas are identified using satellite imagery and population data, applying the same definitions across countries.