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Most Populous Countries in 2050

Try to name the countries that are projected to have the highest populations in the year 2050.
Based on UN projections from 2024. More info here.
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: October 26, 2024
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First submittedJanuary 24, 2013
Times taken205,358
Average score81.0%
Rating4.91
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Population
Country
1678 mil
India
1272 mil
China
383 mil
United States
369 mil
Pakistan
357 mil
Nigeria
320 mil
Indonesia
223 mil
Ethiopia
Population
Country
218 mil
Brazil
216 mil
D. R. Congo
214 mil
Bangladesh
161 mil
Egypt
149 mil
Mexico
136 mil
Russia
134 mil
Philippines
Population
Country
128 mil
Tanzania
110 mil
Vietnam
105 mil
Japan
102 mil
Iran
91.3 mil
Turkey
84.8 mil
Uganda
84.5 mil
Sudan
100 Recent Comments
+14
Level ∞
Oct 26, 2024
Note: This is based off the 2024 edition of World Population Prospects, a publication of the United Nations. It uses the medium fertility variant.

However, these projections are ALREADY inaccurate. Fertility has crashed in nearly every country.

When the 2026 edition comes out, I expect these numbers to be MUCH lower.

+2
Level 29
Jul 22, 2016
Wait. Why there aren't Germany, France and UK?
+17
Level 81
Aug 4, 2016
None of these countries currently have 100 million people in them. France's and the UK's population growth rates are very small and Germany's is flat or declining.
+2
Level 10
Sep 30, 2020
But germany have 83million inhabitants and there are countries in having less then that
+3
Level 58
Dec 1, 2020
Yes - this seems to assume that Germany's population will have declined by about six million by then, which is strange as it's growing at the moment.
+12
Level ∞
Dec 1, 2020
Germany has an average age of 47.1 and a fertility rate of 1.57. Currently, more people die in Germany than are born. If Germany's population is increasing, it is only via massive levels of immigration that are probably not politically tenable in the long term. But who knows? Maybe people will decide to start having kids again. Nevertheless, I have faith that the projections are based on good data.
+5
Level ∞
Aug 27, 2016
The projections for most of these countries have been revised down in the last couple years. The projection for Ethiopia is now "only" 228 million now, down from 281 million.
+11
Level 82
Aug 29, 2016
A perfect example of why people shouldn't kvetch so much over these things. It's never linear, so you can't just project current rates of growth over decades. The current growth rate is slowing, and the most convincing estimates I've seen of global population show a leveling off at around 9.5-10B. Still a huge number so there's work to be done for us to cope well.
+1
Level 76
Sep 2, 2016
Germany's 82 million right now - do they reckon it will shrink over the next 35 years?
+12
Level ∞
Sep 2, 2016
Clearly the answer is yes
+4
Level 50
Mar 20, 2020
It is already shrinking right now.
+2
Level 52
Dec 1, 2020
worldometers claims that Germany now has 83.9 million inhabitants. Thanks (?) to immigrants, I guess.
+10
Level 68
Sep 4, 2016
Don't worry, im sure western europe and north america will be more than willing to accept all the excess population from all of these countries, to do anything else would be -ist
+2
Level 81
Sep 4, 2016
I got them all, but, is Iraq new to the list?
+1
Level 69
Sep 4, 2016
Iraq? not anytime soon, at least.
+17
Level 81
Oct 18, 2016
If my math is correct it should be at least another 33 years before it's 2050. So you're probably right.
+1
Level 24
Apr 22, 2017
ok
+5
Level 81
May 1, 2017
I bet a lot of these declining populations (like Japan or most of Europe) will change course as more and more immigrants replace the current populations.
+1
Level 24
May 6, 2017
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
+1
Level 39
May 20, 2017
Germnay's present population is over 81 million
+6
Level 73
Jan 21, 2019
Congrats
+7
Level 75
Jan 26, 2020
Which, as you've probably already figured out, means that its population is decreasing in the next 30 years.
+2
Level 58
May 29, 2017
It all looks scary, but Uganda beats everything...
+1
Level 35
Jun 2, 2017
How did I not think of Iraq?
+1
Level 64
Jun 29, 2017
i typed "uganda" but it wasn't accepted.
+1
Level 17
Jul 3, 2017
Who thought UGANDA was on here???
+1
Level 57
Jul 3, 2017
Great Quiz - more than interesting...
+5
Level 60
Jul 3, 2017
I wonder if climate change was accounted for. A lot of these countries are in the areas that are getting hotter and drier, and autocratic, and look at Syria for what can happen with climate change under a dictator.
+11
Level 82
Jan 27, 2020
Geez, Syria's problems are 0% from "climate change" and 99% from "dictator".
+11
Level 50
Mar 20, 2020
Actually there have been interesting studies about the effects of climate change on Syria's civil war. In short extreme drought pushed people from the country into cities, which led to overcrowding and heightened tension, which then ultimately sparked the war. Climate change is of course not the only cause of the war, but it does seem to have influenced it.
+1
Level 68
Feb 8, 2022
Do we know that the drought was caused by climate change?
+1
Level 40
Jul 21, 2017
1.02 left took ages to think of Uganda
+11
Level 60
Aug 24, 2017
By 2050 Bangladesh will basically be a city
+1
Level 61
Jan 26, 2025
Dhakittagongpur
+3
Level 75
Oct 10, 2017
Uganda is the Bangladesh of 2050, and Bangladesh will be... incomparable.
+8
Level 92
Mar 9, 2018
This quiz makes me sad.
+5
Level 68
Apr 19, 2018
Uganda is a bomb of population.
+2
Level 34
May 12, 2018
Surprising that Uganda will have more than Turkey.......Turkey has 40 mil more people than it.
+2
Level 34
May 22, 2018
(as of right now)
+3
Level 71
Oct 16, 2018
There are no countries here that are considered solely European.
+5
Level 81
May 23, 2019
Scary stuff.
+3
Level 77
Jan 26, 2025
You know what was legitimately scary? European settler colonialism. God, folks, get some perspective. How many places on Earth are more densely populated than Western Europe? And why are there so many people of Western European extraction living in (dominating/creating dominion in) so much of the rest of the world? And what happened to the populations of those places when they did that? (And what continues to happen to happen to Indigenous peoples around the world is another, related, story.)

Try to have a historical memory longer than sixty years.

+1
Level 50
Jun 3, 2019
+1
Level 42
Jan 28, 2025
no
+1
Level 71
Aug 15, 2019
Hmmm... I realize that population predictions often vary widely because they're difficult to predict. For the most part these seem right, but I did a bit of research and I've found a lot of sources, including Wikipedia, say that Bangladesh's population will be about 202 million, not 250 million, in 2050. It might be worth looking into this again and making that change.
+4
Level ∞
Jan 24, 2020
The numbers have been updated due to Bangladesh's falling birth rate.
+3
Level 76
Jan 25, 2020
What happened to Kenya? I mean we have Uganda, we have Tanzania, I thought Kenya was a somewhat similar to those two?
+6
Level 82
Jan 27, 2020
It's easy to be a "chicken little" about population growth, but human progress is a pretty incredible thing to behold. Problems like disease, corruption, etc. will never be fully eradicated across such a diverse planet, but the quality of life for the vast majority have been improving steadily for decades. Especially so for those in the lowest quartile.

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2013/06/01/towards-the-end-of-poverty

https://www.csmonitor.com/World/2019/0809/Points-of-Progress-271-million-lifted-out-of-poverty-in-India-and-more

+11
Level ∞
Jan 27, 2020
I agree 100%. The more I learn about the world the less I worry about overpopulation. I'd also thoroughly recommend reading The Infinite Resource. Technological adoption is growing faster than the population. This explains why the percentage of people who experience poverty is at all-time lows, and gets better every year.
+5
Level 47
Sep 17, 2020
Speaking of disease...
+1
Level 46
Mar 17, 2020
Iraq surprised me, how could this nation with 40 million people double up in 30 years?
+1
Level 61
Mar 17, 2020
Everyone is talking about Uganda, but Bangladesh is smaller and it's supposed to have 200 million people lol, I don't think they fit to be honest
+5
Level 45
Aug 3, 2020
Uganda's population shift here is much more dramatic, Bangladesh already has a population over 160 million while Uganda is just over 40 million.
+4
Level 57
Nov 9, 2020
Bangladesh is also home to some of the most fertile land in the world, affording to support a larger population than Uganda can.
+1
Level 38
Feb 8, 2022
almost 50 million now
+4
Level 79
Mar 17, 2020
Birth control is much needed in some parts of Africa and Asia.
+5
Level 44
Mar 19, 2020
The way coronavirus is going, the only country with an expanding population will be North Korea.
+7
Level 81
May 28, 2020
The worldwide population growth rate is a little over 1% per year. Even without a vaccine, over time humans would probably develop resistance to COVID-19, and even at the current rate it's going it won't kill off 1% of us. It would have to wipe out 80 million people a year to do that. And that's ignoring the fact that it mostly kills off old people past reproductive age.
+2
Level 66
Aug 11, 2020
Am I the only one who is surprised about Iraq being on the list? (Or maybe it was just added recently). It's not a big country and a lot of it is just a desert, how are they going to fit in there? I kind of get Bangladesh and Nigeria because of all the fertile land, but Iraq doesn't have that
+2
Level 65
Sep 9, 2020
Bangladesh... how the hell are they all going to fit? The living conditions will be unbearable!
+2
Level 91
Dec 10, 2020
Tanzania and Uganda are slated to merge with South Sudan, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi as a single nation in 2023.

This should be a trivial bit in the caveat.

+4
Level 71
Feb 28, 2023
Unlikely.
+2
Level 50
Apr 17, 2025
It didn't happen.
+2
Level 43
Jan 5, 2021
Wow, Nigeria beats the USA.
+2
Level 70
Jan 8, 2021
This is all fake. Everything will get conquered by the COVID empire
+7
Level 71
Feb 28, 2023
Cringe
+1
Level 57
Jan 8, 2021
So countries like South Africa, Thailand, Myanmar, wont be growing much?
+3
Level 38
Feb 8, 2022
Thailand and Myanmar have very low population growth rates, while South Africa has a bit higher growth rate
+1
Level 66
Aug 1, 2024
According to the source for this quiz, the population of South Africa will peak at 76.585m in 2075, Thailand at 72.072m in 2029 and Myanmar at 59.949m in 2052, so no, they won't be.
+1
Level 60
Jan 14, 2021
forgot ethiopia, but at least i got uganda!
+1
Level 61
Mar 19, 2021
I question the numbers for India.
+2
Level 61
Mar 19, 2021
I think it is going to overtake China soonish but with 1.1 billion, fewer than they have now.
+1
Level 38
Feb 8, 2022
Overtaking China in 2026 according to Worldometers
+5
Level 69
Apr 17, 2023
China has officially been passed by India as of 2023
+1
Level 35
Jul 28, 2021
uganda and tanzania killed me
+1
Level 74
Oct 15, 2021
I somehow guessed Iraq randomly in frustration after guessing other countries for the last 2 minutes. Never thought it would be right.
+6
Level 65
Oct 16, 2021
Hello from 2050! This quiz is very wrong; the most populated country right now is Bougainville! Please update this quiz or my pet alien will attack you. Thank You! See you in 2050!
+1
Level 38
Feb 8, 2022
That small region cannot defeat these countries, I think you are from 2000 BC(Maybe)
+1
Level 52
Feb 8, 2022
Damn it, I got everything EXCEPT Turkey :(
+6
Level 44
Feb 12, 2022
tragic...why cant we provide birth control....so many people will be born into utter poverty
+1
Level 72
Aug 10, 2022
Oh well, natural selection
+2
Level 62
Oct 15, 2024
aight wth???
+1
Level 62
Oct 15, 2024
OMG THATS NOT THE ENTIRE EQUATION

you need manufacturing, good healthcare, urbanization, education, etc

+1
Level 15
Jun 29, 2022
I only missed Iraq
+1
Level 47
Oct 14, 2022
Uganda? 94 Million? Such a big population for a small country. I guess countries who were born recently have high growth rate
+1
Level 67
Dec 16, 2022
ITS OVER
+2
Level 79
Dec 17, 2022
Much needed free birth control for Africa.
+1
Level 62
Oct 15, 2024
OMG THATS NOT THE ENTIRE EQUATION

you need manufacturing, good healthcare, urbanization, education, etc

+1
Level 65
Feb 8, 2025
they better get to work on it.
+1
Level 65
Feb 8, 2025
not free, mandatory.
+4
Level 77
Feb 15, 2023
A few too many, perhaps
+2
Level 71
Feb 28, 2023
These estimates for the African nations need updating. Achieving these numbers in a mere 27 years is humanly impossible.
+1
Level 62
Oct 15, 2024
no its pretty possible

but qm should use 2024 stats

+1
Level 68
Jan 29, 2025
The average Nigerian woman has 5.3 children.
+1
Level 69
Jun 26, 2023
How much of Bangladesh will be underwater in 2050 though
+1
Level 65
Feb 8, 2025
no more than now.
+3
Level 58
Aug 15, 2023
Great Quiz! I saw Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda on this quiz and thought about the population of the EAF, i crunched the numbers and found 367 Million! Since it’s been confirmed and planned, it should happen within the next 10 years which would put it in the top 5 of the list (source: worldpopulationreview.com/countries)
+1
Level 64
Jul 11, 2024
I missed Japan, The Philippines and Iran, but somehow got Uganda.
+1
Level 44
Aug 17, 2024
I got all so easily apart with 2 mins left, but it took me an entire minute to get the last one, which was Vietnam
+1
Level 24
Jan 17, 2025
how did i get everything but one of the most obvious ones/ the philippines broooo
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