Compare countries
Pick up to four countries and see their populations charted together from 1950 to 2100, alongside a table of each one’s size today, in 2050 and 2100, when it peaks, and how much it changes over the century.
Which comparisons are worth making?
The most telling comparisons pair countries whose paths are about to cross. India passed China in 2023, and the chart shows how quickly the gap now widens. Nigeria against the United States shows a mid-century crossover in the making. Pairing Japan with Ethiopia, two countries of similar size in the 1960s, shows how differently the century can play out: one has already peaked and is shrinking, the other is projected to more than double. Comparing neighbours, like Germany and France or Pakistan and Bangladesh, often reveals how much fertility and migration, not geography, drive the divergence.
All series use the UN’s medium-variant projection anchored to 1 January each year, so every country is measured on the same basis. For a deeper look at any single country, open its profile page; for two-country head-to-heads with commentary, see the versus pages.