Most populated countries in the world (2026)

What the ten largest populations tell us

India’s projected 1.48 billion residents put it 63.7 million ahead of China. Both are in a different size category from the rest of the ranking: China has roughly 4.0 times the population of the third-ranked United States. The gap between second and third is therefore much larger than the gap between first and second.

The ten most populous countries contain 4.70 billion people, or 56.6% of the UN world total. Within that group are large continental states, the Indonesian archipelago and densely settled Bangladesh. There is no single physical geography shared by all population giants.

10 countries. Scroll the table for all entries. Base rank follows the page’s main measure; sorting another column keeps that rank.

The ten most populated countries: UN medium-variant projection, 1 July 2026.

Base rank	Country ↕	Population, July 2026 ↕	Share of world ↕
1	India	1,476,625,576	17.79%
2	China	1,412,914,089	17.02%
3	United States	349,035,494	4.20%
4	Indonesia	287,886,782	3.47%
5	Pakistan	259,299,791	3.12%
6	Nigeria	242,431,832	2.92%
7	Brazil	213,562,666	2.57%
8	Bangladesh	177,818,044	2.14%
9	Russia	143,394,458	1.73%
10	Ethiopia	138,902,185	1.67%

Nigeria and Ethiopia are Africa’s representatives in the top ten. Brazil is the largest in South America; the United States leads the Americas as a whole. Indonesia is the largest country whose territory lies entirely on islands under our island-country definition. These are comparisons within the same dated dataset, so a continent leader can still sit well below the two global leaders.

The complete population ranking

There are 16 country profiles with at least 100 million people. That threshold describes the size of a population, not its economic output or growth rate. A country can move down the ranking while adding residents if another grows faster; it can also retain a high position while its population declines.

The world-share column answers a different question from rank: how large is this country’s population relative to all humanity? India and China together account for 34.8%, but no single country reaches one-fifth of the total. Percentages use the UN world figure, including places outside this directory, so the displayed country shares do not add to exactly 100%.

196 countries. Scroll the table for all entries. Base rank follows the page’s main measure; sorting another column keeps that rank.

All 196 country profiles, ordered by projected population on 1 July 2026.

Base rank	Country ↕	Population, July 2026 ↕	Share of world ↕
1	India	1,476,625,576	17.789%
2	China	1,412,914,089	17.022%
3	United States	349,035,494	4.205%
4	Indonesia	287,886,782	3.468%
5	Pakistan	259,299,791	3.124%
6	Nigeria	242,431,832	2.921%
7	Brazil	213,562,666	2.573%
8	Bangladesh	177,818,044	2.142%
9	Russia	143,394,458	1.728%
10	Ethiopia	138,902,185	1.673%
11	Mexico	132,997,658	1.602%
12	Japan	122,427,731	1.475%
13	Egypt	120,101,175	1.447%
14	Philippines	117,724,471	1.418%
15	Democratic Republic of the Congo	116,452,162	1.403%
16	Vietnam	102,177,431	1.231%
17	Iran	93,168,497	1.122%
18	Turkey	87,926,082	1.059%
19	Germany	83,644,258	1.008%
20	Tanzania	72,563,780	0.874%
21	Thailand	71,559,614	0.862%
22	United Kingdom	69,931,528	0.842%
23	France	66,746,401	0.804%
24	South Africa	65,453,084	0.789%
25	Italy	58,926,166	0.710%
26	Kenya	58,636,412	0.706%
27	Myanmar	55,184,819	0.665%
28	Colombia	53,936,226	0.650%
29	Sudan	53,282,719	0.642%
30	Uganda	52,761,469	0.636%
31	South Korea	51,600,388	0.622%
32	Algeria	48,028,334	0.579%
33	Iraq	48,007,437	0.578%
34	Spain	47,850,793	0.576%
35	Argentina	46,003,734	0.554%
36	Afghanistan	45,047,069	0.543%
37	Yemen	42,961,653	0.518%
38	Canada	40,467,728	0.488%
39	Angola	40,215,179	0.484%
40	Ukraine	39,535,849	0.476%
41	Morocco	38,762,441	0.467%
42	Poland	37,843,188	0.456%
43	Uzbekistan	37,724,223	0.454%
44	Mozambique	36,639,851	0.441%
45	Malaysia	36,385,115	0.438%
46	Ghana	35,697,557	0.430%
47	Saudi Arabia	35,165,787	0.424%
48	Peru	34,922,148	0.421%
49	Madagascar	33,522,052	0.404%
50	Ivory Coast	33,494,346	0.404%
51	Cameroon	30,640,817	0.369%
52	Nepal	29,629,410	0.357%
53	Niger	28,814,878	0.347%
54	Venezuela	28,633,711	0.345%
55	Australia	27,227,096	0.328%
56	North Korea	26,633,691	0.321%
57	Syria	26,472,497	0.319%
58	Mali	25,932,275	0.312%
59	Burkina Faso	24,601,700	0.296%
60	Sri Lanka	23,348,315	0.281%
61	Taiwan	23,011,292	0.277%
62	Malawi	22,785,535	0.275%
63	Zambia	22,521,915	0.271%
64	Chad	21,560,380	0.260%
65	Kazakhstan	21,083,626	0.254%
66	Somalia	20,305,907	0.245%
67	Chile	19,945,850	0.240%
68	Senegal	19,366,548	0.233%
69	Guatemala	18,967,978	0.229%
70	Romania	18,800,605	0.226%
71	Netherlands	18,448,775	0.222%
72	Ecuador	18,444,506	0.222%
73	Cambodia	18,051,219	0.217%
74	Zimbabwe	17,273,580	0.208%
75	Guinea	15,441,993	0.186%
76	Benin	15,170,419	0.183%
77	Rwanda	14,889,693	0.179%
78	Burundi	14,729,157	0.177%
79	Bolivia	12,749,291	0.154%
80	South Sudan	12,436,037	0.150%
81	Tunisia	12,415,138	0.150%
82	Haiti	12,037,506	0.145%
83	Belgium	11,774,642	0.142%
84	Dominican Republic	11,609,500	0.140%
85	Jordan	11,589,532	0.140%
86	United Arab Emirates	11,574,682	0.139%
87	Honduras	11,184,760	0.135%
88	Tajikistan	10,978,599	0.132%
89	Papua New Guinea	10,947,848	0.132%
90	Cuba	10,892,659	0.131%
91	Sweden	10,701,047	0.129%
92	Czech Republic	10,527,781	0.127%
93	Azerbaijan	10,454,855	0.126%
94	Portugal	10,395,362	0.125%
95	Togo	9,930,918	0.120%
96	Greece	9,897,115	0.119%
97	Israel	9,647,689	0.116%
98	Hungary	9,585,818	0.115%
99	Austria	9,107,266	0.110%
100	Switzerland	9,007,798	0.109%
101	Sierra Leone	8,996,745	0.108%
102	Belarus	8,937,018	0.108%
103	Laos	7,974,017	0.096%
104	Turkmenistan	7,736,632	0.093%
105	Libya	7,539,851	0.091%
106	Kyrgyzstan	7,400,465	0.089%
107	Nicaragua	7,097,329	0.086%
108	Paraguay	7,095,279	0.085%
109	Bulgaria	6,667,659	0.080%
110	Serbia	6,641,964	0.080%
111	Republic of the Congo	6,637,785	0.080%
112	El Salvador	6,391,253	0.077%
113	Denmark	6,023,520	0.073%
114	Singapore	5,905,748	0.071%
115	Lebanon	5,897,467	0.071%
116	Liberia	5,853,949	0.071%
117	Central African Republic	5,698,984	0.069%
118	Palestine	5,692,790	0.069%
119	Oman	5,671,458	0.068%
120	Norway	5,652,989	0.068%
121	Finland	5,621,739	0.068%
122	Mauritania	5,461,319	0.066%
123	Slovakia	5,451,342	0.066%
124	Ireland	5,356,950	0.065%
125	New Zealand	5,287,479	0.064%
126	Costa Rica	5,174,789	0.062%
127	Kuwait	5,102,773	0.061%
128	Panama	4,625,718	0.056%
129	Croatia	3,822,345	0.046%
130	Georgia	3,804,642	0.046%
131	Eritrea	3,682,669	0.044%
132	Mongolia	3,556,798	0.043%
133	Uruguay	3,382,537	0.041%
134	Qatar	3,173,559	0.038%
135	Namibia	3,153,246	0.038%
136	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3,114,242	0.038%
137	Moldova	2,961,253	0.036%
138	Armenia	2,930,915	0.035%
139	Gambia	2,884,079	0.035%
140	Jamaica	2,833,403	0.034%
141	Lithuania	2,797,338	0.034%
142	Albania	2,751,025	0.033%
143	Gabon	2,647,399	0.032%
144	Botswana	2,603,388	0.031%
145	Lesotho	2,389,336	0.029%
146	Guinea-Bissau	2,297,808	0.028%
147	Slovenia	2,114,573	0.025%
148	Equatorial Guinea	1,984,468	0.024%
149	Latvia	1,835,935	0.022%
150	North Macedonia	1,804,063	0.022%
151	Bahrain	1,675,572	0.020%
152	Trinidad and Tobago	1,513,268	0.018%
153	Timor-Leste	1,436,923	0.017%
154	Cyprus	1,382,334	0.017%
155	Estonia	1,331,062	0.016%
156	Eswatini	1,269,859	0.015%
157	Mauritius	1,265,059	0.015%
158	Djibouti	1,199,459	0.014%
159	Fiji	937,282	0.011%
160	Comoros	899,010	0.011%
161	Solomon Islands	858,288	0.010%
162	Guyana	840,890	0.010%
163	Bhutan	802,214	0.010%
164	Luxembourg	687,448	0.008%
165	Suriname	645,256	0.008%
166	Montenegro	626,233	0.008%
167	Malta	549,011	0.007%
168	Maldives	531,517	0.006%
169	Cape Verde	529,630	0.006%
170	Brunei	469,775	0.006%
171	Belize	428,644	0.005%
172	Bahamas	404,628	0.005%
173	Iceland	402,329	0.005%
174	Vanuatu	342,564	0.004%
175	Barbados	282,724	0.003%
176	Sao Tome and Principe	244,994	0.003%
177	Samoa	220,528	0.003%
178	Saint Lucia	180,488	0.002%
179	Kiribati	138,445	0.002%
180	Seychelles	134,959	0.002%
181	Grenada	117,362	0.001%
182	Micronesia	114,183	0.001%
183	Tonga	103,291	0.001%
184	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	99,245	0.001%
185	Antigua and Barbuda	94,626	0.001%
186	Andorra	83,753	0.001%
187	Dominica	65,511	0.001%
188	Saint Kitts and Nevis	46,992	0.001%
189	Liechtenstein	40,368	0.000%
190	Monaco	38,087	0.000%
191	Marshall Islands	35,075	0.000%
192	San Marino	33,605	0.000%
193	Palau	17,614	0.000%
194	Nauru	12,101	0.000%
195	Tuvalu	9,362	0.000%
196	Vatican City	506	0.000%

Download the complete data as CSV ↓

Searching or filtering keeps each country’s overall rank. For example, filtering to Africa shows Nigeria’s place in the world as well as its position relative to its neighbours. The CSV includes unrounded source counts and calculated shares for anyone building their own comparison.

How population is distributed across regions

Asia contains 58.6% of the world’s population. Africa’s share is 19.1%, while Oceania’s is 0.57%. These regional totals show why counting countries on a map gives a poor impression of where people live: countries vary enormously in population.

The regional figures are UN aggregates, not sums of the country filter. They include territories and follow UN geographic boundaries. In particular, a directory’s decision to place a transcontinental country in one region does not redefine the source’s regional totals. The world population guide also compares these regions with 2050 projections.

Population size, density and future growth

Population measures residents; density measures residents divided by land area. Russia has a far larger land footprint than Bangladesh, but Bangladesh has more people in this projection. Looking at both quantities explains why a high population rank need not imply high national density. Neither measure tells you how crowded a particular city or neighbourhood feels.

A ranking for one date cannot establish which country is growing fastest. Population change depends on births, deaths and migration, and on the age structure that shapes future numbers of births and deaths. The UN’s medium variant is a projection based on assumptions about those components. It is a common comparison framework, not a guarantee of the eventual count.

Why do population websites show different numbers?

Some display a changing clock, others an annual estimate, and others a census conducted several years earlier. Revision dates and territorial coverage also differ. For a meaningful comparison, check the reference date and source before treating a difference as an error. The figures here remain fixed to 1 July 2026 rather than increasing each second.

Are these exact counts of everyone alive?

No. The source publishes whole-number projections, but that numerical precision does not eliminate uncertainty. Census coverage, demographic estimation and future assumptions all affect the result. Small differences between countries close together in the table deserve more caution than a very large population gap.