How the ranking of the world's largest populations compares between 2024 and projected 2050 figures.
The 15 largest populations in 2024.
Bars show each country's population in mid-2024, ordered from largest to smallest, with projected 2050 population shown alongside for comparison. India and China are the two largest in 2024, each above 1.4 billion, followed by the United States, Indonesia, and Pakistan.
Switching to projected 2050 population changes both the bars and the ranking.
Under these projections, India remains the largest population in 2050, and China remains second, though China's population is projected to be smaller in 2050 than in 2024. Pakistan and Nigeria are projected to move ahead of Indonesia into fourth and fifth place.
A closer look at some of the clearest changes.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (14th in 2024, projected 7th in 2050) and Egypt (15th to 11th) are projected to move up the ranking. Tanzania is projected to enter the top 15 by 2050, up from 22nd in 2024. Japan, part of the 2024 top 15 shown in Step 1, is projected to fall to 17th by 2050 and no longer appears here.