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Data for 1979

Total Population, 1979

1979, as UN DESA Population Division’s 2024 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Total Population, 1979 covers 222 countries. China is highest, at 969,288,069; Vatican City is lowest, at 742. The middle country reads 3,390,269. Against 1978, 222 values changed (211 up, 11 down), the same countries are covered.

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Total Population · Data for 1979

HighestChina

969,288,069

LowestVatican City

742

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, 1979, 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, 1979: every country, as published by UN DESA Population Division.
derived
1ChinaCHNEastern Asia969,288,069
2IndiaINDSouthern Asia671,155,747
3United StatesUSANorthern America227,575,084
4IndonesiaIDNSouth-eastern Asia145,434,834
5RussiaRUSEastern Europe137,816,541
6BrazilBRASouth America118,380,821
7JapanJPNEastern Asia117,521,556
8BangladeshBGDSouthern Asia85,935,072
9PakistanPAKSouthern Asia78,997,039
10GermanyDEUWestern Europe78,147,901
11NigeriaNGAWestern Africa71,498,242
12MexicoMEXCentral America65,648,865
13United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe56,218,763
14ItalyITASouthern Europe56,132,380
15FranceFRAWestern Europe53,660,895
16VietnamVNMSouth-eastern Asia51,378,211
17UkraineUKREastern Europe49,721,381
18PhilippinesPHLSouth-eastern Asia46,807,103
19ThailandTHASouth-eastern Asia44,718,434
20TürkiyeTURWestern Asia44,510,429
21EgyptEGYNorthern Africa42,818,628
22IranIRNSouthern Asia38,424,952
23South KoreaKOREastern Asia37,710,899
24SpainESPSouthern Europe37,230,372
25PolandPOLEastern Europe35,248,387

02In 1979

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1China969,288,069
  2. 2India671,155,747
  3. 3United States227,575,084
  4. 4Indonesia145,434,834
  5. 5Russia137,816,541

Lowest

  1. 222Vatican City742
  2. 221Niue3,652
  3. 220Anguilla6,577
  4. 219Tuvalu7,184
  5. 218Turks and Caicos Islands7,306

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 3,390,269. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031978 → 1979

Since 1978

What changed between 1978 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 222values changed, of 222 in both
  • 211 · 11rose · fell
  • 0unchanged

Rose most

  • India655,728,229 → 671,155,747+15,427,518
  • China956,161,485 → 969,288,069+13,126,584
  • Indonesia141,953,163 → 145,434,834+3,481,671
  • Brazil115,600,942 → 118,380,821+2,779,879
  • Pakistan76,307,379 → 78,997,039+2,689,660

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 1979.

  • 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 (1979). Total Population, 1979 [data set], describing 1979. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/population/1979

0674 held

Other years

07Questions

Total Population, 1979: questions and answers

Which country has the highest population in Total Population, 1979?

China, at 969,288,069, of the 222 countries in the file.

What year does Total Population, 1979 describe?

1979.

How many countries does Total Population, 1979 cover?

222.

Where can I download Total Population, 1979?

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, 1979 the newest?

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

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