Country Population Quiz

Country populations span six orders of magnitude — from Vatican City's eight hundred residents to India's 1.4 billion. This higher-or-lower quiz draws two random countries from the full pool of 196 and asks the simplest question in demographics: which one has more people?

The data set is the United Nations World Population Prospects, the standard reference used by every government and most economists. Numbers are 2024 medium-variant estimates and update quarterly.

Matchups that catch you off guard

Ethiopia (about 130 million) has now overtaken Japan (about 124 million). Vietnam now has more people than Germany. Pakistan, often missed in casual rankings, sits fifth in the world ahead of Brazil and Nigeria. Egypt has overtaken Iran. The fastest-growing populations are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa — Niger's fertility rate of 6.6 children per woman is the highest on Earth, and DR Congo is expected to triple its population by 2100.

Did you know?

• India overtook China as the world's most populous country in 2023 — the first such handover in modern recorded history.
• Nigeria is on track to become the third most populous country on Earth by 2050, ahead of the United States.
• Vatican City has a permanent population of around 800 people — fewer than most large office buildings.
• Half of the world's population lives inside a circle drawn around Southeast Asia (the "Valeriepieris circle").
• Niger has the fastest-growing population in the world, with women having on average more than six children each.
• China's one-child policy ran from 1980 to 2015 and is still reshaping the country's demographics decades later.
• Iceland's entire population — about 380,000 — would fit comfortably inside a single mid-size US city.
• Russia, the largest country by area, has a smaller population than Bangladesh, the 92nd-largest.
• South Korea's birth rate has fallen below 0.8 children per woman — the lowest ever recorded for a country.
• Monaco has the highest population density in the world at roughly 18,000 people per square kilometre.
• Indonesia is the most populous Muslim-majority country, with over 270 million people across 17,000 islands.
• Ethiopia's population has more than doubled since 2000 and is now larger than Germany's.
• By 2100, demographers project nearly 40% of humanity will live in Africa.
• Pitcairn Island has only about 50 permanent residents — the smallest population of any inhabited national territory.
• Tokyo's metropolitan area has more people than the entire population of Australia and New Zealand combined.

Read more

The eight most populous countries, and what is changing — India passed China in 2023, Nigeria is climbing fast, and the gap between the biggest country and the smallest is about 1.8 million to one.

Where the data comes from

Every figure in this category is drawn from UN World Population Prospects (2024). Data is refreshed quarterly; if a number looks wrong, tell us and we will check the source.