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Data for 2023

Total Population, 2023

2023, as UN DESA Population Division’s 2024 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Total Population, 2023 covers 222 countries. India is highest, at 1,438,069,596; Vatican City is lowest, at 496. The middle country reads 6,541,413. Against 2022, 222 values changed (182 up, 40 down), the same countries are covered.

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Total Population · Data for 2023

HighestIndia

1,438,069,596

LowestVatican City

496

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, 2023, 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, 2023: every country, as published by UN DESA Population Division.
derived
1IndiaINDSouthern Asia1,438,069,596
2ChinaCHNEastern Asia1,422,584,933
3United StatesUSANorthern America343,477,335
4IndonesiaIDNSouth-eastern Asia281,190,067
5PakistanPAKSouthern Asia247,504,495
6NigeriaNGAWestern Africa227,882,945
7BrazilBRASouth America211,140,729
8BangladeshBGDSouthern Asia171,466,990
9RussiaRUSEastern Europe145,440,500
10MexicoMEXCentral America129,739,759
11EthiopiaETHEastern Africa128,691,692
12JapanJPNEastern Asia124,370,947
13PhilippinesPHLSouth-eastern Asia114,891,199
14EgyptEGYNorthern Africa114,535,772
15DR CongoCODMiddle Africa105,789,731
16VietnamVNMSouth-eastern Asia100,352,192
17IranIRNSouthern Asia90,608,707
18TürkiyeTURWestern Asia87,270,501
19GermanyDEUWestern Europe84,548,231
20ThailandTHASouth-eastern Asia71,702,435
21United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe68,682,962
22TanzaniaTZAEastern Africa66,617,606
23FranceFRAWestern Europe66,438,822
24South AfricaZAFSouthern Africa63,212,384
25ItalyITASouthern Europe59,499,453

02In 2023

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1India1,438,069,596
  2. 2China1,422,584,933
  3. 3United States343,477,335
  4. 4Indonesia281,190,067
  5. 5Pakistan247,504,495

Lowest

  1. 222Vatican City496
  2. 221Niue1,817
  3. 220Montserrat4,420
  4. 219Tuvalu9,816
  5. 218Nauru11,875

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 6,541,413. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032022 → 2023

Since 2022

What changed between 2022 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 222values changed, of 222 in both
  • 182 · 40rose · fell
  • 0unchanged

Rose most

  • India1,425,423,212 → 1,438,069,596+12,646,384
  • Nigeria223,150,896 → 227,882,945+4,732,049
  • Pakistan243,700,667 → 247,504,495+3,803,828
  • DR Congo102,396,968 → 105,789,731+3,392,763
  • Ethiopia125,384,287 → 128,691,692+3,307,405

Fell most

  • Ukraine41,048,766 → 37,732,836−3,315,930
  • China1,425,179,569 → 1,422,584,933−2,594,636
  • Japan124,997,578 → 124,370,947−626,631
  • Greece10,412,480 → 10,242,908−169,572
  • Russia145,579,899 → 145,440,500−139,399

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 2023.

  • 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 (2023). Total Population, 2023 [data set], describing 2023. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/population/2023

0674 held

Other years

07Questions

Total Population, 2023: questions and answers

Which country has the highest population in Total Population, 2023?

India, at 1,438,069,596, of the 222 countries in the file.

What year does Total Population, 2023 describe?

2023.

How many countries does Total Population, 2023 cover?

222.

Where can I download Total Population, 2023?

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, 2023 the newest?

Yes, as of 2026-09-26, when it was read from the publisher.

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