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Data for 2008

Total Population, 2008

2008, as UN DESA Population Division’s 2024 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Total Population, 2008 covers 222 countries. China is highest, at 1,333,821,016; Vatican City is lowest, at 638. The middle country reads 5,436,442. Against 2007, 222 values changed (187 up, 35 down), the same countries are covered.

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Total Population · Data for 2008

HighestChina

1,333,821,016

LowestVatican City

638

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, 2008, 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, 2008: every country, as published by UN DESA Population Division.
derived
1ChinaCHNEastern Asia1,333,821,016
2IndiaINDSouthern Asia1,207,930,964
3United StatesUSANorthern America304,970,333
4IndonesiaIDNSouth-eastern Asia240,157,903
5BrazilBRASouth America190,367,302
6PakistanPAKSouthern Asia189,499,113
7NigeriaNGAWestern Africa157,595,014
8BangladeshBGDSouthern Asia149,474,264
9RussiaRUSEastern Europe143,811,840
10JapanJPNEastern Asia128,155,990
11MexicoMEXCentral America110,374,288
12PhilippinesPHLSouth-eastern Asia92,699,095
13EgyptEGYNorthern Africa85,864,789
14EthiopiaETHEastern Africa85,543,668
15VietnamVNMSouth-eastern Asia85,175,788
16GermanyDEUWestern Europe81,110,777
17IranIRNSouthern Asia75,514,204
18TürkiyeTURWestern Asia71,562,338
19ThailandTHASouth-eastern Asia67,619,830
20DR CongoCODMiddle Africa64,390,664
21FranceFRAWestern Europe62,780,190
22United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe62,027,306
23ItalyITASouthern Europe59,561,684
24South AfricaZAFSouthern Africa51,114,599
25MyanmarMMRSouth-eastern Asia48,390,793

02In 2008

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1China1,333,821,016
  2. 2India1,207,930,964
  3. 3United States304,970,333
  4. 4Indonesia240,157,903
  5. 5Brazil190,367,302

Lowest

  1. 222Vatican City638
  2. 221Niue1,780
  3. 220Montserrat4,677
  4. 219Nauru10,009
  5. 218Tuvalu10,321

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 5,436,442. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032007 → 2008

Since 2007

What changed between 2007 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 222values changed, of 222 in both
  • 187 · 35rose · fell
  • 0unchanged

Rose most

  • India1,190,676,021 → 1,207,930,964+17,254,943
  • China1,325,813,582 → 1,333,821,016+8,007,434
  • Pakistan184,493,231 → 189,499,113+5,005,882
  • Nigeria153,267,261 → 157,595,014+4,327,753
  • United States301,844,226 → 304,970,333+3,126,107

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 2008.

  • 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 (2008). Total Population, 2008 [data set], describing 2008. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/population/2008

0674 held

Other years

07Questions

Total Population, 2008: questions and answers

Which country has the highest population in Total Population, 2008?

China, at 1,333,821,016, of the 222 countries in the file.

What year does Total Population, 2008 describe?

2008.

How many countries does Total Population, 2008 cover?

222.

Where can I download Total Population, 2008?

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, 2008 the newest?

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

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