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Data for 1959

Total Population, 1959

1959, as UN DESA Population Division’s 2024 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Total Population, 1959 covers 222 countries. China is highest, at 652,708,217; Vatican City is lowest, at 920. The middle country reads 2,284,255. Against 1958, 221 values changed (213 up, 8 down), the same countries are covered.

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Total Population · Data for 1959

HighestChina

652,708,217

LowestVatican City

920

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, 1959, 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, 1959: every country, as published by UN DESA Population Division.
derived
1ChinaCHNEastern Asia652,708,217
2IndiaINDSouthern Asia425,780,669
3United StatesUSANorthern America177,145,764
4RussiaRUSEastern Europe118,293,890
5JapanJPNEastern Asia95,622,978
6IndonesiaIDNSouth-eastern Asia85,892,869
7GermanyDEUWestern Europe72,241,717
8BrazilBRASouth America70,214,470
9United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe52,226,471
10BangladeshBGDSouthern Asia50,441,762
11ItalyITASouthern Europe49,219,446
12FranceFRAWestern Europe45,963,763
13PakistanPAKSouthern Asia44,495,162
14NigeriaNGAWestern Africa44,161,681
15UkraineUKREastern Europe42,244,270
16MexicoMEXCentral America35,627,266
17VietnamVNMSouth-eastern Asia31,585,547
18SpainESPSouthern Europe30,140,707
19PolandPOLEastern Europe29,132,527
20TürkiyeTURWestern Asia27,526,341
21PhilippinesPHLSouth-eastern Asia26,907,607
22EgyptEGYNorthern Africa26,226,857
23ThailandTHASouth-eastern Asia26,088,013
24South KoreaKOREastern Asia25,298,233
25MyanmarMMRSouth-eastern Asia21,264,010

02In 1959

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1China652,708,217
  2. 2India425,780,669
  3. 3United States177,145,764
  4. 4Russia118,293,890
  5. 5Japan95,622,978

Lowest

  1. 222Vatican City920
  2. 221Sint Maarten2,521
  3. 220Saint Martin4,112
  4. 219Nauru4,454
  5. 218Niue4,806

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 2,284,255. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031958 → 1959

Since 1958

What changed between 1958 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 221values changed, of 222 in both
  • 213 · 8rose · fell
  • 1unchanged

Rose most

  • India415,777,442 → 425,780,669+10,003,227
  • China644,219,479 → 652,708,217+8,488,738
  • United States174,215,310 → 177,145,764+2,930,454
  • Indonesia83,592,762 → 85,892,869+2,300,107
  • Brazil68,092,141 → 70,214,470+2,122,329

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 1959.

  • 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 (1959). Total Population, 1959 [data set], describing 1959. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/population/1959

0674 held

Other years

07Questions

Total Population, 1959: questions and answers

Which country has the highest population in Total Population, 1959?

China, at 652,708,217, of the 222 countries in the file.

What year does Total Population, 1959 describe?

1959.

How many countries does Total Population, 1959 cover?

222.

Where can I download Total Population, 1959?

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, 1959 the newest?

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

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