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Data for 1972

Total Population, 1972

1972, as UN DESA Population Division’s 2024 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Total Population, 1972 covers 222 countries. China is highest, at 863,677,814; Vatican City is lowest, at 737. The middle country reads 2,979,609. Against 1971, 222 values changed (215 up, 7 down), the same countries are covered.

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Total Population · Data for 1972

HighestChina

863,677,814

LowestVatican City

737

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, 1972, 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, 1972: every country, as published by UN DESA Population Division.
derived
1ChinaCHNEastern Asia863,677,814
2IndiaINDSouthern Asia570,482,142
3United StatesUSANorthern America212,842,573
4RussiaRUSEastern Europe131,726,419
5IndonesiaIDNSouth-eastern Asia122,039,841
6JapanJPNEastern Asia109,238,955
7BrazilBRASouth America100,146,797
8GermanyDEUWestern Europe78,719,918
9BangladeshBGDSouthern Asia71,641,519
10PakistanPAKSouthern Asia63,583,194
11NigeriaNGAWestern Africa58,601,748
12United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe56,079,239
13ItalyITASouthern Europe54,067,563
14MexicoMEXCentral America54,030,168
15FranceFRAWestern Europe51,743,874
16UkraineUKREastern Europe47,946,893
17VietnamVNMSouth-eastern Asia43,429,168
18PhilippinesPHLSouth-eastern Asia39,408,560
19TürkiyeTURWestern Asia38,430,221
20ThailandTHASouth-eastern Asia37,933,929
21EgyptEGYNorthern Africa36,258,328
22SpainESPSouthern Europe34,539,867
23South KoreaKOREastern Asia33,936,465
24PolandPOLEastern Europe33,041,996
25IranIRNSouthern Asia30,921,179

02In 1972

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1China863,677,814
  2. 2India570,482,142
  3. 3United States212,842,573
  4. 4Russia131,726,419
  5. 5Indonesia122,039,841

Lowest

  1. 222Vatican City737
  2. 221Niue4,894
  3. 220Tuvalu5,692
  4. 219Turks and Caicos Islands5,915
  5. 218Anguilla6,403

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 2,979,609. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031971 → 1972

Since 1971

What changed between 1971 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

  • China844,069,867 → 863,677,814+19,607,947
  • India558,096,387 → 570,482,142+12,385,755
  • Indonesia118,833,702 → 122,039,841+3,206,139
  • United States210,426,432 → 212,842,573+2,416,141
  • Brazil97,739,273 → 100,146,797+2,407,524

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 1972.

  • 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 (1972). Total Population, 1972 [data set], describing 1972. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/population/1972

0674 held

Other years

07Questions

Total Population, 1972: questions and answers

Which country has the highest population in Total Population, 1972?

China, at 863,677,814, of the 222 countries in the file.

What year does Total Population, 1972 describe?

1972.

How many countries does Total Population, 1972 cover?

222.

Where can I download Total Population, 1972?

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, 1972 the newest?

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

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