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Data for 1990

Total Population, 1990

1990, as UN DESA Population Division’s 2024 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Total Population, 1990 covers 222 countries. China is highest, at 1,153,582,724; Vatican City is lowest, at 726. The middle country reads 4,276,698. Against 1989, 222 values changed (201 up, 21 down), the same countries are covered.

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Total Population · Data for 1990

HighestChina

1,153,582,724

LowestVatican City

726

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, 1990, 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, 1990: every country, as published by UN DESA Population Division.
derived
1ChinaCHNEastern Asia1,153,582,724
2IndiaINDSouthern Asia864,972,221
3United StatesUSANorthern America253,373,387
4IndonesiaIDNSouth-eastern Asia183,501,098
5BrazilBRASouth America149,143,223
6RussiaRUSEastern Europe148,979,541
7JapanJPNEastern Asia123,399,765
8PakistanPAKSouthern Asia116,155,576
9BangladeshBGDSouthern Asia111,633,717
10NigeriaNGAWestern Africa97,120,925
11MexicoMEXCentral America82,820,170
12GermanyDEUWestern Europe79,707,959
13VietnamVNMSouth-eastern Asia65,504,552
14PhilippinesPHLSouth-eastern Asia62,854,666
15EgyptEGYNorthern Africa58,396,618
16IranIRNSouthern Asia58,380,092
17United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe57,367,862
18ItalyITASouthern Europe57,031,454
19FranceFRAWestern Europe56,990,238
20TürkiyeTURWestern Asia56,015,628
21ThailandTHASouth-eastern Asia54,738,329
22UkraineUKREastern Europe52,054,092
23EthiopiaETHEastern Africa47,609,755
24South KoreaKOREastern Asia44,081,427
25South AfricaZAFSouthern Africa40,746,268

02In 1990

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1China1,153,582,724
  2. 2India864,972,221
  3. 3United States253,373,387
  4. 4Indonesia183,501,098
  5. 5Brazil149,143,223

Lowest

  1. 222Vatican City726
  2. 221Niue2,483
  3. 220Anguilla8,399
  4. 219Tuvalu8,798
  5. 218Nauru9,622

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 4,276,698. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031989 → 1990

Since 1989

What changed between 1989 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 222values changed, of 222 in both
  • 201 · 21rose · fell
  • 0unchanged

Rose most

  • China1,133,991,008 → 1,153,582,724+19,591,716
  • India846,039,529 → 864,972,221+18,932,692
  • Pakistan112,336,629 → 116,155,576+3,818,947
  • Indonesia180,201,630 → 183,501,098+3,299,468
  • United States250,675,053 → 253,373,387+2,698,334

Fell most

  • Kuwait2,217,468 → 1,684,819−532,649
  • Liberia2,517,858 → 2,223,667−294,191
  • Bulgaria8,936,380 → 8,822,365−114,015
  • Georgia5,499,641 → 5,448,868−50,773
  • Somalia7,114,817 → 7,082,811−32,006

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 1990.

  • 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 (1990). Total Population, 1990 [data set], describing 1990. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/population/1990

0674 held

Other years

07Questions

Total Population, 1990: questions and answers

Which country has the highest population in Total Population, 1990?

China, at 1,153,582,724, of the 222 countries in the file.

What year does Total Population, 1990 describe?

1990.

How many countries does Total Population, 1990 cover?

222.

Where can I download Total Population, 1990?

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, 1990 the newest?

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

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