A population changes in three ways: births, deaths and migration. Its age structure decides how many of those people are children, workers or retirees, so two countries of the same size can face opposite problems.
Counts and growth rates are the World Bank's, built mostly from the UN's World Population Prospects; the share-of-world charts add the UN medium projection to 2100. Projections are scenarios, not forecasts. Definitions are in the glossary.
- World population, 2025
- 8.2B
- Growing 0.91% a year
- Most populous
- 🇮🇳 India
- 1.5B · 2025
- Fastest growing
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- +4.7% · 2025
- Fastest shrinking
- 🇲🇩 Moldova
- -1.8% · 2025
The largest populations
These 15 countries hold 64% of the world's people.
- 1🇮🇳 India1.5B · 17.8%
- 2🇨🇳 China1.4B · 17.1%
- 3🇺🇸 United States341.8M · 4.2%
- 4🇮🇩 Indonesia285.7M · 3.5%
- 5🇵🇰 Pakistan255.2M · 3.1%
- 6🇳🇬 Nigeria237.5M · 2.9%
- 7🇧🇷 Brazil212.8M · 2.6%
- 8🇧🇩 Bangladesh175.7M · 2.1%
- 9🇷🇺 Russia143.5M · 1.7%
- 10🇪🇹 Ethiopia135.5M · 1.6%
- 11🇲🇽 Mexico131.9M · 1.6%
- 12🇯🇵 Japan123.4M · 1.5%
- 13🇪🇬 Egypt118.4M · 1.4%
- 14🇵🇭 Philippines116.8M · 1.4%
- 15🇨🇩 DR Congo112.8M · 1.4%
Shares of the World Bank world total. Full list: population rankings; history and the UN projection: share of the world.
Growing and shrinking
Annual population change, countries over 1 million people. 33 of them are shrinking.
Fastest growing
- 1🇦🇪 UAE+4.68%
- 2🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia+4.63%
- 3🇴🇲 Oman+3.96%
- 4🇶🇦 Qatar+3.92%
- 5🇸🇾 Syria+3.77%
- 6🇹🇩 Chad+3.41%
- 7🇨🇫 Central African Republic+3.37%
- 8🇸🇴 Somalia+3.34%
- 9🇳🇪 Niger+3.22%
- 10🇨🇩 DR Congo+3.20%
Fastest shrinking
- 1🇲🇩 Moldova-1.75%
- 2🇦🇱 Albania-1.17%
- 3🇽🇰 Kosovo-1.10%
- 4🇱🇻 Latvia-0.99%
- 5🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina-0.77%
- 6🇱🇰 Sri Lanka-0.73%
- 7🇰🇼 Kuwait-0.65%
- 8🇷🇸 Serbia-0.57%
- 9🇵🇷 Puerto Rico-0.55%
- 10🇧🇾 Belarus-0.51%
Where it happens inside countries: growth map · Europe's regions.
Maps and tools
Every population explorer on the site.
Population
Share of world population & births
China, India, Nigeria and others as % of world people and babies, 1950–2100 — with UN medium forecast.
Population
Where the births are
Share of a region's residents, and share of its babies — country by country. A younger country can punch above its population.
Population
Compare regions yourself
Paint provinces into groups, sum their populations, and download a social-ready image.
Population
World population growth map
Annual % change by country on a scrubable timeline — who is growing, who is shrinking.
Population
Europe: who grew, who shrank
GHSL 2000→2025 settlement change — green growth, pink decline, gray empty.
Maps
Birth-rate maps
Animated maps of births per 1,000 people: Europe's regions, U.S. counties and Polish gminy.
Rankings
Largest populations race
The 15 most populous countries every year since 1960, as an animated bar race you can export.
Maps
World in 10 million
The whole planet as zones of about ten million people each — after Anita Chen.
Maps
Europe in 1 million
The EU, the UK and the Balkans as compact regions of about one million people each.
Population
Population rankings
Most populous countries, fastest growth, density, dependency, rural share, and urban growth.
Population
Workers vs retirees
China’s share aged 65+ to 2100, plus workers-per-retiree maps and paths through ~2060.
Maps
Historic migrations
Slavic, Arab, Turkic and other routes, moving in stages with a short note.
Growth calculator
Compound today's population at a constant annual rate. Illustrative arithmetic, not a projection.
Population growth calculator
Pick a country to load its latest population and growth rate, or keep World and edit the numbers yourself. Compound growth only — not a full demographic projection.
Starting from world totals — adjust freely below.
In 50 years
12.9B
Net change
+4.7B
Doubling time
77 yrs
Related insights
Other charts and country pages on the same theme.
- Where the births areWorldwide
- Share of world population & birthsWorldwide
- China — share aged 65+ to 2100China
- World population growth mapWorldwide
- Population rankingsWorldwide
- Compare regional populationsWorldwide
- India populationIndia
- Europe population changeEurope
- India populationIndia
- China populationChina
- Nigeria populationAfrica
- United States populationUSA
- Compare population across countriesWorldwide
- Fertility rates worldwideWorldwide
- Net migration by countryWorldwide
What this page measures
- Total Populationpeople
- Total resident population, all ages and both sexes. Source: World Bank Open Data.
- Population Growth% annual
- Annual percentage change in total population, combining births, deaths, and net migration. A country can grow while births fall, if migration more than compensates. Source: World Bank Open Data.
- Population Ages 0–14 (% of total)% of population
- Share of the population aged 0–14. Used to anchor the current age structure for projections. Source: World Bank Open Data.
- Population Ages 15–64 (% of total)% of population
- Share of the population of working age (15–64). Used to anchor the current age structure for projections. Source: World Bank Open Data.
- Population Ages 65+ (% of total)% of population
- Share of the population aged 65 and over. Used to anchor the current age structure for projections. Source: World Bank Open Data.
- Urban Population% of total
- Share of the population living in urban areas (%). Source: World Bank Open Data.
- Rural Population (% of total)% of total
- Share of people living outside areas classified as urban — the complement of the urban share. Each country sets its own urban definition, so this reads best within a country over time rather than across borders. Source: World Bank Open Data.
- Urban Population Growth% annual
- Annual change in the population living in urban areas. Combines natural increase in cities, migration from the countryside, and places being reclassified as urban — the third can move the series without anyone moving house. Source: World Bank Open Data.
- Population Densitypeople per sq km
- People per square kilometre of land area. Land area includes desert, mountain and ice, so national density says little about how crowded the inhabited parts of a country actually are. Source: World Bank Open Data.
- Age Dependency Ratio% of working-age population
- People under 15 and over 64 per 100 people of working age. A high ratio can mean many children or many pensioners — opposite fiscal situations — so read it alongside the age-structure shares. Source: World Bank Open Data.
- Female Share of Population% of population
- Women as a share of the total population. Departures from roughly 50% reflect sex selection at birth, the gap between male and female mortality, and heavily sex-imbalanced labour migration. Source: World Bank Open Data.
- Figures beyond the current year are UN projections conditional on assumptions, not forecasts.
Definitions for every indicator are listed in the glossary, and collection methods in the methodology.
Sources & citation
- World Bank Open Data — World Development Indicators and population statistics. Licence: CC BY-4.0.
- FertilityThe main driver of long-run population change
- MigrationWhy growth can diverge from natural change
- Where the births areWho makes up a region's people, and who makes up its births
- Share of world population & birthsCountry % of world people and babies, 1950–2100
- World population growth mapAnnual % change timeline by country
- Europe population changeGHSL 2000→2025 growth and decline grid
- Compare regional populationsPaint provinces into groups and download a map
- Population rankingsSize, growth, density, dependency, urban–rural
- Workers vs retireesWorking-age and 65+ through 2060
- CitiesWhere that population actually lives
- SimulatorBuild your own projection scenario
birthrate.io, "Population". https://www.birthrate.io/population (accessed 12 November 2026). Underlying data: World Bank Open Data.
Please cite the original statistical agency for the underlying figures. Charts and tables on this page may be reused with attribution.