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Data for 1951

Total Population, 1951

1951, as UN DESA Population Division’s 2024 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Total Population, 1951 covers 222 countries. China is highest, at 553,758,247; Vatican City is lowest, at 886. The middle country reads 1,942,561. Against 1950, 222 values changed (215 up, 7 down), the same countries are covered.

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Total Population · Data for 1951

HighestChina

553,758,247

LowestVatican City

886

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the highest end. Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score.

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Total Population, 1951, as published. UN DESA Population Division ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Showing 25 of 222 countries · select a heading to sort

Total Population, 1951: every country, as published by UN DESA Population Division.
derived
1ChinaCHNEastern Asia553,758,247
2IndiaINDSouthern Asia353,870,057
3United StatesUSANorthern America156,481,323
4RussiaRUSEastern Europe104,844,658
5JapanJPNEastern Asia87,849,926
6IndonesiaIDNSouth-eastern Asia70,286,303
7GermanyDEUWestern Europe69,782,052
8BrazilBRASouth America55,018,851
9United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe50,346,815
10ItalyITASouthern Europe46,751,899
11FranceFRAWestern Europe42,333,662
12BangladeshBGDSouthern Asia42,022,304
13NigeriaNGAWestern Africa37,994,077
14UkraineUKREastern Europe37,807,747
15PakistanPAKSouthern Asia36,581,898
16MexicoMEXCentral America28,320,482
17SpainESPSouthern Europe28,214,860
18VietnamVNMSouth-eastern Asia25,600,268
19PolandPOLEastern Europe25,222,692
20TürkiyeTURWestern Asia21,643,880
21EgyptEGYNorthern Africa21,605,918
22ThailandTHASouth-eastern Asia20,965,182
23South KoreaKOREastern Asia19,868,990
24PhilippinesPHLSouth-eastern Asia19,568,081
25MyanmarMMRSouth-eastern Asia18,070,418

02In 1951

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1China553,758,247
  2. 2India353,870,057
  3. 3United States156,481,323
  4. 4Russia104,844,658
  5. 5Japan87,849,926

Lowest

  1. 222Vatican City886
  2. 221Sint Maarten1,553
  3. 220Saint Martin3,113
  4. 219Nauru3,510
  5. 218Niue4,542

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 1,942,561. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031950 → 1951

Since 1950

What changed between 1950 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 222values changed, of 222 in both
  • 215 · 7rose · fell
  • 0unchanged

Rose most

  • China544,044,358 → 553,758,247+9,713,889
  • India346,278,821 → 353,870,057+7,591,236
  • United States154,202,680 → 156,481,323+2,278,643
  • Brazil53,408,551 → 55,018,851+1,610,300
  • Indonesia68,799,025 → 70,286,303+1,487,278

Fell most

Both years come from the same release, so a difference here is a change in the data, not a revision of it. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.

04Caveats

Read before you use

What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.

The site’s method

  • One year of the 2024 release

    Every year in this series comes from UN DESA Population Division’s 2024 release, recalculated on one method. It can differ from what was first published for 1951.

  • 221 distinct values among 222

    Values are stored exactly as published. 2 countries share 794,323. Countries sharing a value share a position too.

  • The position is ours

    UN DESA Population Division publishes values only. The order here sorts the published values, and the page says so wherever it prints one.

  • Which end is better

    Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score.

  • Nothing missing

    Every one of the 222 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.

Licence in full

What this site changed: Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

Licence: CC BY 3.0 IGO. The version of CC BY written for intergovernmental organisations. Credit the publisher and say what you changed.

Cite this edition

UN DESA Population Division (1951). Total Population, 1951 [data set], describing 1951. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/population/1951

0674 held

Other years

07Questions

Total Population, 1951: questions and answers

Which country has the highest population in Total Population, 1951?

China, at 553,758,247, of the 222 countries in the file.

What year does Total Population, 1951 describe?

1951.

How many countries does Total Population, 1951 cover?

222.

Where can I download Total Population, 1951?

On this page, as a CSV file holding every value exactly as published, or from the publisher’s own site, linked below.

Is Total Population, 1951 the newest?

No. The newest held here is Total Population, 2023.

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