The World Population Data Sheet lists all geopolitical entities with populations of 150,000 or more and all members of the United Nations, including sovereign states, dependencies, overseas departments, and some territories whose status or boundaries may be undetermined or in dispute. For simplicity, this tool refers to all geopolitical entities as “countries.”
Each indicator’s definition is listed alongside the data.
The rates and figures are primarily compiled from the following sources: online databases, reports, and other materials from national statistical offices and regional organizations; demographic and family planning surveys such as the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), and Performance Monitoring for Action (PMA) surveys; the United Nations (UN) Demographic Yearbook 2024 and Population and Vital Statistics Report, vol. LXXVIII (January 2026), of the UN Statistics Division; World Population Prospects: The 2024 Revision, World Contraceptive Use 2024, and World Urbanization Prospects: The 2025 Revision of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division; the International Database of the International Programs Center, U.S. Census Bureau; the World Development Indicators database of the World Bank; FAOSTAT of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; the UNESCO Institute for Statistics UIS Data Browser; ILOSTAT of the International Labour Organization; the Inter-Parliamentary Union; the AIDSinfo database of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS; and estimates from the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group, comprising the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Population Fund, the World Bank Group, and the UN Population Division.
The sources also include direct communication with national statistical offices, demographers, and country experts. Specific data sources may be obtained by contacting the authors of the 2026 World Population Data Sheet.
Demographic rates for countries with complete vital registration are those most recently reported. For more-developed countries, the rates refer to 2025 or 2024. For other indicators, see Definitions for data years.
Regional population totals are independently rounded and include small countries or areas not shown. Regional and world rates and percentages are weighted averages of countries for which data are available. Regional averages are shown when data or estimates are available for at least three-quarters of the region’s population.
World Population Data Sheets from different years should not be used as a time series. Fluctuations in values from year to year often reflect revisions based on new data or estimates rather than actual changes in levels.
More-developed, less-developed, and least-developed regions follow the UN classification (UN OHRLLS).
High-income, middle-income (composed of upper middle-income and lower middle-income), and low-income economies follow the World Bank classification based on GNI per capita (World Bank).
(/) A slash between years indicates that data presented are the most recent available between the two years.
(—) Indicates data unavailable or not applicable. Missing values are excluded from regional aggregates.