Population by Country: 2025 World Rankings

Population figures count everyone living in a country at mid-year, whatever their legal status or citizenship. The World Bank publishes them using estimates from the United Nations Population Division and revises them as countries conduct censuses and update their records of births and deaths.

Global population passed 8 billion in late 2022, and its growth has slowed sharply: the world population growth rate fell from over 2% a year in the 1960s to below 1% a year in the 2020s. The slowdown comes from falling fertility in virtually every region, including sub-Saharan Africa, the last region with very high fertility, where rates are also declining. India overtook China as the most populous country in 2023, a milestone that reflects China's decades-long one-child policy and its lasting demographic consequences.

Population size alone tells you little about a country's economic capacity or quality of life. Nigeria has a larger population than Germany but a fraction of its GDP. What matters for economic analysis is the interaction between population, age structure and productivity. Countries with large working-age populations (the "demographic dividend") can grow faster if they can employ their young people productively, which is the opportunity facing India, Indonesia and parts of Africa. Countries with aging populations, such as Japan, South Korea and much of Europe, face the opposite challenge: shrinking labor forces and rising dependency ratios.