Birth and death rates in cities and villages

Birth and death rates show how many children are born and how many people die in a year for every 1,000 residents. The gap between the two decides whether a population grows or shrinks on its own. The chart shows the rates for the urban and rural population separately, from 1980.

In 1980, cities had 21.5 births per 1,000 residents and villages 25.1. By 2000 these had fallen to 10.3 and 11.4. Death rates rose over the period and peaked in 2020, at 13.3 in cities and 10.9 in villages.

In 2025, the urban birth rate was 8.4, the lowest of the years shown, against a death rate of 8.8: cities recorded more deaths than births, as they also did in 2021. Villages kept a clearly higher birth rate, 13.9, against a death rate of 7.4.