Population by Country (2025)

World Population by Country

The world's population has grown from about 2.5 billion in 1950, according to UN estimates, to 8.19 billion across the 217 countries in this table in 2025. The growth has been uneven. India overtook China as the most populous country in 2023, reflecting China's decades-old one-child policy and India's younger population. Together, India and China hold 35.0% of the total. The 10 most populous countries (India, China, United States, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Brazil, Bangladesh, Russia and Ethiopia) hold 56.9%.

Global population growth has slowed sharply since the 1960s, when it exceeded 2% a year. The UN's World Population Prospects 2024 projects that the world population will peak at about 10.3 billion in the mid-2080s and then decline slowly. The drivers of the slowdown are the same almost everywhere: more education for women, urbanization, access to contraception and the move from farming to services, all of which lower fertility rates. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the fastest-growing region; see population growth by country.

Population size alone doesn't determine economic power. Age structure, productivity and skills matter more. Countries with many working-age people relative to children and retirees can enjoy a "demographic dividend" that speeds up growth, the opportunity now facing India, Indonesia and parts of Africa. Countries with ageing, shrinking populations, such as Japan and South Korea, face the opposite challenge: fewer workers supporting more retirees. For more, see the world population overview and life expectancy rankings.