50 Fun Facts About World Population

The United Nations marked the 'Day of Eight Billion' on 15 November of which year?

2022 was the year humanity passed eight billion, only eleven years after the seven-billion mark was reached.

Which country, in the same year the world passed eight billion, recorded its first population fall since 1961?

China's population fell that year for the first time since 1961, and the UN's 2024 forecast has it shrinking to 639 million by 2100, less than half its 2022 size.

Which country has the world's highest median age, with more than 29% of its people over 65 as of 2025?

Japan's population is the oldest on Earth, its fertility rate of 1.2 is far below the 2.1 replacement level, and it is already shrinking.

Which country's fertility rate fell to 0.72 births per woman in 2023, the lowest in the world?

South Korea's 0.72 is barely a third of the level needed to keep a population stable, and it has had the OECD's steepest fall in working-age population.

Which continent has the youngest population in the world, with a median age of under 20 years?

Africa's median age was 19.7 in 2012 against a world figure of 30.4, and its population is projected to pass 3.8 billion by 2100.

Roughly what share of the human population lives in the Northern Hemisphere, which holds most of Earth's land?

About 87% of people live north of the equator, some 6.4 billion of the 7.3 billion alive in 2015.

Which pandemic drove world population down from about 443 million in 1340 to under 375 million by 1400?

The Black Death era cut humanity by roughly a fifth, with the Indian subcontinent losing the most, and Europe's numbers took 200 years to recover.

Which continent's population swings from about 5,000 in summer to around 1,000 in winter, all at research stations?

Antarctica has no permanent residents at all: tourism, fishing and research are the only human activities there.

Which country passed 40 million people only in 2023, with immigration the main driver of its growth?

Canada reached 40 million in 2023 and 41 million a year later, with immigration the main driver of its growth.

The UN estimates world population first reached one billion in which year, 123 years before it hit two billion?

1804 is the UN's date for the first billion; the second took until 1927, but the third arrived just 33 years later in 1960.

Danica May Camacho, one of the symbolic 'seven-billionth' babies chosen in 2011, was born in which country?

The Philippines' Danica May Camacho arrived in a Manila hospital just before midnight on the eve of the Day of Seven Billion, alongside symbolic babies in India and Sri Lanka.

Adnan Mević, named by the UN as the symbolic six-billionth person in 1999, was born in which city?

Sarajevo's Adnan Mević was welcomed as the six-billionth baby by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, two minutes after midnight on 12 October 1999.

World Population Day falls on which date, the anniversary of the 'Day of Five Billion' in 1987?

July 11 became World Population Day after public interest in Five Billion Day in 1987, the estimated date humanity passed five billion.

UN projections published in 2024 have world population peaking in the 2080s at roughly what size?

Around 10.3 billion people is the expected peak in 2084, after which the UN sees a slow decline as global fertility sinks towards 1.8.

World population growth peaked in the mid-1960s at roughly what annual rate, more than double the 0.9% of 2023?

2.2% a year was the peak; growth has since slid to 0.9%, about 74 million extra people a year, and could turn negative by 2100.

Which landlocked Sahel country has the world's highest fertility rate, with nearly half its people under 15?

Niger's rate of about 6.5 births per woman has left 49.7% of its population under the age of 15.

Spread over all Earth's land, the 8.2 billion people alive in 2025 average roughly how many per square kilometre?

Just 50 per km² is the planet's average density, though nearly 60% of all people are squeezed into Asia.

Which South Asian country of over 170 million people is the most densely populated large country in the world?

Bangladesh packs a headline 1,265 people into each square kilometre, ranking fifth most populous in Asia and eighth in the world.

Which territory west of Hong Kong packs about 720,000 people into 33 square kilometres, the densest region on Earth?

Macau, a Portuguese colony until its 1999 handover, has built two-thirds of its total area on land reclaimed from the sea.

Which self-governing Danish territory, home to about 56,000 people, is the least densely populated country in the world?

Greenland's 56,583 residents cluster on the south-west coast, leaving most of the island empty.

Which British overseas territory had only 35 permanent residents in 2023, the fewest of any territory in the world?

Pitcairn Islands' 35 people descend mainly from nine Bounty mutineers and twelve Tahitian women who landed in 1790.

Which Pacific island nation counted just 10,643 people at its 2022 census, one of the tiniest national populations?

Tuvalu ranks 194th of the world's countries by population, with only Niue and Vatican City smaller.

Which inland municipality, roughly the size of Austria, is counted as the world's largest city proper by population?

Chongqing's 82,403-square-kilometre municipality holds over 30 million residents, though it is not the most populous urban area.

Which city on the Buriganga River is widely considered the most densely populated built-up urban area in the world?

Dhaka has swelled to an estimated 36.6 million people, most of them rural migrants, and ranks among the fastest-growing megacities.

Which Brazilian state capital is the most populous city in both the Western and Southern Hemispheres?

São Paulo is the most populous city in the whole of the Americas, and its name is simply Portuguese for 'Saint Paul'.

Which capital, first documented in 1147, is the most populous city lying entirely within Europe?

Moscow is also Europe's largest urban and metropolitan area, its metro region sprawling over 26,000 square kilometres.

Which capital anchors the largest urban agglomeration in the Arab world, with more than 22 million people?

Cairo's city proper holds 9.8 million, but Greater Cairo tops 22 million and is the largest urban area in the Middle East too.

Which new capital in East Kalimantan is being built to relieve Jakarta of overpopulation and land sinking?

Nusantara, next to the port of Balikpapan in East Kalimantan, is planned as a national capital region at provincial level.

The UN's World Urbanization Prospects report defines a megacity as an urban agglomeration above what population?

Over 10 million inhabitants is the UN's yardstick for a megacity; academics, the OECD and the European Council each draw the line differently.

By the UN's count, city dwellers first outnumbered rural residents worldwide in which year, up from 15% in 1900?

2007 was the tipping point when over 50% of people lived in cities, a share that had stood at just 15% at the start of the 20th century.

What fertility rate, in births per woman, counts as 'replacement level' for most developed countries?

2.1 births per woman keeps a population steady, yet the UN expects the global rate to sink below that, to about 1.8, by 2100.

Which English cleric's 1798 Essay on the Principle of Population argued that better food supply only breeds more people?

Thomas Malthus held that food production grows arithmetically while population grows exponentially, the core of Malthusian theory.

Which Stanford professor co-wrote the 1968 book The Population Bomb, predicting worldwide famines from overpopulation?

Paul Ehrlich wrote it with his wife Anne, a Stanford conservation researcher, and it demanded immediate action to limit population growth.

The post-war baby boom in the United States is conventionally dated from 1946 to which year?

1964 closes the boom, during which annual US births exceeded 2 per 100 women, roughly 1% of the whole population every year.

The one-child policy, instituted in 1979, was replaced by a two-child policy on 1 January of which year?

2016 ended a policy that had slowed growth in the first country ever to reach a billion people, a milestone it passed in 1982.

'Census Day', the reference date for each United States census, has fallen on which date since 1930?

April 1 has been Census Day since 1930; the very first count in 1790 used the first Monday in August instead.

The first United States census in 1790, required by Article 1 of the Constitution, counted roughly how many inhabitants?

Nearly 4 million people, 3,929,214 to be exact, were enumerated by US marshals, and Census Day that year was 2 August.

The United States population passed 300 million in October of which year, 39 years after passing 200 million?

2006's milestone came on 17 October; the US had grown from about 76 million in 1900 to 281 million by 2000.

The United Kingdom has held a full census every ten years since which year, skipping 1941 because of the war?

1801 began the series; other gaps since have included Ireland in 1921 and Northern Ireland in 1931.

Which 1086 survey of England did William the Conqueror order so that he could properly tax the land he had conquered?

Domesday Book was first known in Latin as Liber de Wintonia, the 'Book of Winchester', after the city where it was kept.

Which country's statistics agency descends from the Tabellverket, an 'office for tabulation' set up in 1749?

Sweden's clergy had been ordered to keep population records even earlier, and the agency took its current name in 1858.

India's census, taken every ten years since 1872, was postponed because of COVID-19 from which year?

2021's count never happened; the 16th census was scheduled to begin on 1 October 2026 for the Himalayan states and 1 March 2027 elsewhere.

Which dynasty's census of AD 2, registering 57.7 million people, is one of the world's earliest preserved censuses?

Han officials counted 57,671,400 people in 12,366,470 households, though only taxable families were included in the tally.

Which country, with well over 100 million people, is the most populous landlocked nation in the world?

Ethiopia's population has grown from 38.1 million in 1983 to well over 100 million, the second largest in Africa after Nigeria.

Which country of about 119 million people in 2025 is the most populous in the Middle East?

Egypt's people crowd the Nile's banks, its delta and the Suez Canal, regions that are among the most densely populated in the world.

Which country, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, is the fourth most populous country overall?

Indonesia's population stood at 284 million in mid-2025 and is still growing by about 1.1% a year.

Which country has recorded more deaths than births every year since 1993, yet its population only peaked in 2015?

Italy's immigration kept the total rising to 60.8 million in 2015, before it logged the fewest births since unification in 1861.

Which Balkan EU member's population peaked at just over 9 million in 1989 and has been falling since?

Bulgaria's 2011 census showed a further 600,000 people lost since 2001 alone, on top of the post-1989 slide.

Which South Asian country is the fifth most populous in the world and has the second-largest Muslim population?

Pakistan's 2023 census put the final count at 247.5 million, more than seven times its population in 1951.

Which country's population, concentrated on its eastern and southern seaboards, should exceed 30 million by 2031?

Australia's numbers started from an estimated 300,000 to 2.4 million Indigenous Australians before British arrival, and most of its people now live in urban areas.