How many of us,
and for how long?
An interactive look at where every country's population stands today, how fast it is changing, and where the UN's projections say it is heading over the rest of the century, including the uncertainty around those projections.
World population, 1950 to 2100
Medium variant with 80% and 95% probabilistic prediction intervals, plus the UN low and high fertility variants.
Annual growth rate, world
Exponential rate of change per year (%). Growth peaked in the 1960s and is projected to turn negative in the 2080s.
Added (or lost) each year, world
Net change in population per year, in millions.
Key findings
The map of change
Choose a measure. Hover any country for details, click to open its full profile.
Country profile
Population trajectory
Estimates through 2023, projections from 2024. Shaded bands are the 80% and 95% prediction intervals; dashed lines are the low and high fertility variants.
Annual growth rate
% per year
Fertility rate
Births per woman. Dashed line marks replacement level (2.1).
Life expectancy at birth
Years, both sexes
Components of change, 2023
Per 1,000 people. Natural increase (births minus deaths) plus net migration approximately equals the growth rate.
Compare countries
Add up to six countries. Switch to indexed view to compare trajectories regardless of size.
Who leads, who grows, who shrinks
The ten most populous countries today, at mid-century, and at the end of the century, on a shared scale.
Largest projected gains
Largest projected declines
Continents and income groups
The center of gravity of humanity is shifting. Asia peaks around mid-century while Africa keeps growing through 2100.
Growth by World Bank income group
Indexed, 2026 = 100
Regional snapshot
Population (billions) and growth, medium variant
Full data table
Method and sources
Source
All figures come from the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2024), World Population Prospects 2024, as packaged in the wpp2024 data release. Populations are mid-year (1 July) totals. Values from 1950 to 2023 are UN estimates; values from 2024 onward are projections. "Today" refers to the 2026 mid-year projection, and the live counter interpolates between the 2026 and 2027 mid-year values by calendar date.
Projection variants and uncertainty
Medium variant is the UN's central projection, the median of thousands of probabilistic simulations of fertility, mortality, and migration. 80% and 95% prediction intervals show the range in which the future population falls with that probability under the UN's statistical model. The low and high variants are deterministic scenarios in which fertility is half a child below or above the medium path; they are wider than the probabilistic intervals by design and are useful as bounding scenarios.
Definitions
Annual growth rate is the exponential rate ln(Pt+1 / Pt) × 100, matching the UN convention. Peak is the maximum of the medium-variant series between 1950 and 2100; a country "still growing in 2100" has its maximum at the end of the horizon. Fertility is the total fertility rate (births per woman). Components of change are crude birth, death, and net migration rates per 1,000 population. Regions follow UN SDG/geographic groupings; income groups follow the World Bank classification used by the UN.
Caveats
Projections are conditional on assumptions about future fertility, mortality, and migration, and are revised every two years. Uncertainty widens quickly beyond 2050, especially for countries with high fertility or volatile migration. Small territories can show large percentage swings from small absolute changes. Map borders are illustrative (Natural Earth 1:110m) and imply no position on disputed territories.