How many years of comparable data are there for Tanzania, United Republic of and Zambia?

15 years are reported by both, from 1950 to 2020.

Where does this data come from?

European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as Share of population living in rural areas. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

Tanzania, United Republic of vs Zambia: Share of population living in rural areas

Tanzania, United Republic of

46.5%

in 2020

Zambia

46.8%

in 2020

Tanzania, United Republic of rank

36th

Zambia rank

34th

Share of population living in rural areas over time

Tanzania, United Republic of
Zambia

How they compare

Zambia currently reports 46.8% against 46.5% in Tanzania, United Republic of, a difference of 0.3%.

The two have swapped places 1 time across 15 shared years of data; in 1950 it was Tanzania, United Republic of ahead.

Tanzania, United Republic of ranks 36th and Zambia ranks 34th of 236 countries.

Across the 8 decades both report, Tanzania, United Republic of averaged higher in 7 and Zambia in 1.

Head to head by decade

Decade	Tanzania, United Republic of	Zambia	Difference	Ahead
1950s	84.6%	54.5%	30.1%	Tanzania, United Republic of
1960s	81.5%	52.5%	29.0%	Tanzania, United Republic of
1970s	77.0%	50.1%	27.0%	Tanzania, United Republic of
1980s	70.1%	50.4%	19.7%	Tanzania, United Republic of
1990s	63.1%	52.2%	10.9%	Tanzania, United Republic of
2000s	56.4%	50.9%	5.5%	Tanzania, United Republic of
2010s	51.0%	47.8%	3.2%	Tanzania, United Republic of
2020s	46.5%	46.8%	0.3%	Zambia

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher share of population living in rural areas, Tanzania, United Republic of or Zambia?: Zambia, at 46.8% against 46.5% in Tanzania, United Republic of as of 2020.
What is the difference in share of population living in rural areas between Tanzania, United Republic of and Zambia?: 0.3%, with Zambia ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for Tanzania, United Republic of and Zambia?: 15 years are reported by both, from 1950 to 2020.
How do Tanzania, United Republic of and Zambia rank globally for share of population living in rural areas?: Tanzania, United Republic of ranks 36th and Zambia 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 Share of population living in 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

Tanzania, United Republic of vs Zambia: Share of population living in rural areas. Statizoid, drawing on European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data. Retrieved 10 September 2026, from https://population.statizoid.com/compare/share-of-population-living-in-rural-areas/tanzania/zambia/

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/share-of-population-living-in-rural-areas/tanzania/zambia/">Tanzania, United Republic of vs Zambia: Share of population living in rural areas</a> — Statizoid

About this data

Indicator: Share of population living in rural areas
Unit: %
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: 28 August 2026

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