This evolution is marked by an increase in the population living in urban areas: 1.215 million (52.7 per cent) at the end of 1997 and 2.131 million (68.3 per cent) at the end of 2016. In 2016,67 percent of the urban population live in Ulaanbaatar. Conversely, the population living in rural areas has decreased, it was fewer than 1 million (993,862) in 2004 and remained under 1 million (988,112) at the end of 2016.