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Data for 1985

Total Population, 1985

1985, as UN DESA Population Division’s 2024 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Total Population, 1985 covers 222 countries. China is highest, at 1,059,807,820; Vatican City is lowest, at 732. The middle country reads 3,819,365. Against 1984, 222 values changed (208 up, 14 down), the same countries are covered.

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Total Population · Data for 1985

HighestChina

1,059,807,820

LowestVatican City

732

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, 1985, 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, 1985: every country, as published by UN DESA Population Division.
derived
1ChinaCHNEastern Asia1,059,807,820
2IndiaINDSouthern Asia772,647,793
3United StatesUSANorthern America241,690,443
4IndonesiaIDNSouth-eastern Asia166,776,185
5RussiaRUSEastern Europe143,569,389
6BrazilBRASouth America135,515,595
7JapanJPNEastern Asia120,832,163
8BangladeshBGDSouthern Asia100,253,825
9PakistanPAKSouthern Asia98,229,285
10NigeriaNGAWestern Africa84,897,973
11GermanyDEUWestern Europe77,863,424
12MexicoMEXCentral America75,043,414
13VietnamVNMSouth-eastern Asia59,060,622
14ItalyITASouthern Europe56,855,501
15United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe56,606,414
16FranceFRAWestern Europe55,467,150
17PhilippinesPHLSouth-eastern Asia55,213,006
18UkraineUKREastern Europe51,108,770
19EgyptEGYNorthern Africa50,734,968
20TürkiyeTURWestern Asia50,687,115
21ThailandTHASouth-eastern Asia50,270,753
22IranIRNSouthern Asia49,582,289
23South KoreaKOREastern Asia41,148,963
24EthiopiaETHEastern Africa39,842,136
25SpainESPSouthern Europe38,601,321

02In 1985

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1China1,059,807,820
  2. 2India772,647,793
  3. 3United States241,690,443
  4. 4Indonesia166,776,185
  5. 5Russia143,569,389

Lowest

  1. 222Vatican City732
  2. 221Niue2,783
  3. 220Anguilla6,955
  4. 219Tuvalu8,046
  5. 218Nauru8,551

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 3,819,365. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031984 → 1985

Since 1984

What changed between 1984 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 222values changed, of 222 in both
  • 208 · 14rose · fell
  • 0unchanged

Rose most

  • India754,875,449 → 772,647,793+17,772,344
  • China1,043,849,638 → 1,059,807,820+15,958,182
  • Indonesia163,251,124 → 166,776,185+3,525,061
  • Pakistan95,164,936 → 98,229,285+3,064,349
  • Brazil132,658,864 → 135,515,595+2,856,731

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 1985.

  • 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 (1985). Total Population, 1985 [data set], describing 1985. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/population/1985

0674 held

Other years

07Questions

Total Population, 1985: questions and answers

Which country has the highest population in Total Population, 1985?

China, at 1,059,807,820, of the 222 countries in the file.

What year does Total Population, 1985 describe?

1985.

How many countries does Total Population, 1985 cover?

222.

Where can I download Total Population, 1985?

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, 1985 the newest?

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

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