Population by Country 2026: UN Population Projection and Full Ranking

What the population metric measures

Total population is the number of residents living in a country or area at a specified date. This ranking uses the UN mid-year measure for 2026, both sexes combined. A higher rank means a larger resident population; it does not indicate better economic or social performance.

The UN uses the term “country or area” because the dataset includes sovereign states, territories and other separately reported locations. The table follows that coverage and does not combine those rows with world or regional totals.

India and China together account for 34.8% of the UN world total, while the first ten entries account for 56.6%. Sixteen locations exceed 100 million residents.

Why population differs between countries

Population size reflects accumulated demographic history, not a single year of births or migration. Four forces explain most of the differences in the ranking and most changes over time.

Full ranking of 237 countries and areas

Search by official or common name, filter by UN continental region, change the sort order or restrict the table to the original Top 10 or Top 20 ranks.

The source values are reported in thousands. Display labels are converted to B, M or K units and rounded only after the ranking is calculated.

Showing 237 of 237 entries.

Projected resident population in mid-2026; values rounded for display

Methodology and limitations

The ranking uses the “Total Population, as of 1 July (thousands)” field for 2026 from the Medium variant sheet in the UN World Population Prospects 2024 compact demographic indicators workbook. All included records have the UN type “Country/Area”. World and other aggregate rows are excluded.

The medium variant is the UN’s central projection path, not a guarantee or a census count. It is especially useful for a near-term global comparison, but small differences between neighboring ranks should not be treated as exact. Country and area names follow UN usage; those designations do not imply a position on legal status, sovereignty or boundaries.

What stands out in the 2026 ranking

How to use this ranking responsibly

Use the table to compare the scale of resident populations at one common date. It is useful for market-size context, infrastructure planning, education and health-system capacity, environmental pressure and geopolitical comparison.

Do not use rank alone as a measure of growth or future opportunity. For that, compare population growth rates, fertility, age structure and migration. A country can be very large and shrinking, or relatively small and growing rapidly.

The smallest entries require extra care because modest numerical changes can produce large percentage swings. The table follows the UN country-or-area classification, so territories and other separately reported locations should not be interpreted as equivalent to sovereign states.

Frequently asked questions

Related population rankings

Sources