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Data for 1986

Total Population, 1986

1986, as UN DESA Population Division’s 2024 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Total Population, 1986 covers 222 countries. China is highest, at 1,077,233,607; Vatican City is lowest, at 730. The middle country reads 3,932,059. Against 1985, 222 values changed (208 up, 14 down), the same countries are covered.

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Total Population · Data for 1986

HighestChina

1,077,233,607

LowestVatican City

730

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, 1986, 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, 1986: every country, as published by UN DESA Population Division.
derived
1ChinaCHNEastern Asia1,077,233,607
2IndiaINDSouthern Asia790,689,978
3United StatesUSANorthern America243,953,807
4IndonesiaIDNSouth-eastern Asia170,175,065
5RussiaRUSEastern Europe144,807,813
6BrazilBRASouth America138,336,370
7JapanJPNEastern Asia121,366,735
8BangladeshBGDSouthern Asia102,635,572
9PakistanPAKSouthern Asia101,606,764
10NigeriaNGAWestern Africa87,235,953
11GermanyDEUWestern Europe77,923,807
12MexicoMEXCentral America76,585,637
13VietnamVNMSouth-eastern Asia60,347,048
14ItalyITASouthern Europe56,875,988
15United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe56,751,923
16PhilippinesPHLSouth-eastern Asia56,645,077
17FranceFRAWestern Europe55,752,834
18EgyptEGYNorthern Africa52,206,295
19TürkiyeTURWestern Asia51,777,772
20IranIRNSouthern Asia51,446,045
21UkraineUKREastern Europe51,318,745
22ThailandTHASouth-eastern Asia51,177,834
23South KoreaKOREastern Asia41,718,505
24EthiopiaETHEastern Africa41,037,656
25SpainESPSouthern Europe38,735,705

02In 1986

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1China1,077,233,607
  2. 2India790,689,978
  3. 3United States243,953,807
  4. 4Indonesia170,175,065
  5. 5Russia144,807,813

Lowest

  1. 222Vatican City730
  2. 221Niue2,634
  3. 220Anguilla7,219
  4. 219Tuvalu8,217
  5. 218Nauru8,742

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 3,932,059. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031985 → 1986

Since 1985

What changed between 1985 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

  • India772,647,793 → 790,689,978+18,042,185
  • China1,059,807,820 → 1,077,233,607+17,425,787
  • Indonesia166,776,185 → 170,175,065+3,398,880
  • Pakistan98,229,285 → 101,606,764+3,377,479
  • Brazil135,515,595 → 138,336,370+2,820,775

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 1986.

  • 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 (1986). Total Population, 1986 [data set], describing 1986. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/population/1986

0674 held

Other years

07Questions

Total Population, 1986: questions and answers

Which country has the highest population in Total Population, 1986?

China, at 1,077,233,607, of the 222 countries in the file.

What year does Total Population, 1986 describe?

1986.

How many countries does Total Population, 1986 cover?

222.

Where can I download Total Population, 1986?

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, 1986 the newest?

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

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