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List of countries and dependencies by population facts for kids

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Global population cartogram
Cartogram of the world's population in 2018; each square represents 500,000 people.

This is a list of countries and other places by how many people live there. We call these "populations." This list includes:

  • Sovereign states: These are independent countries, like the United States or China.
  • Dependent territories: These are places that are controlled by another country, like Puerto Rico (controlled by the US).
  • Sometimes, parts of a country are listed separately, like the different parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

We mostly follow a special international standard called ISO 3166-1 to decide what to include. The United Nations (a group of countries working together) estimates that the world population is about 7.45 billion people this year. This list also shows what percentage of the world's population lives in each place.

How We Count People

Counting everyone in the world is a huge job! Here's how we get these numbers:

Official Counts and Estimates

Many countries do their own counts, called a census. This is like a big survey to count every person living there. They also make "estimates" or "projections" for the future. These are educated guesses about how many people there are, based on birth rates, death rates, and people moving in or out.

If a country doesn't have recent numbers, we use estimates from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. They have a special group that studies populations.

Why Numbers Might Be Different

It's important to know that these numbers aren't all collected at the exact same time. Also, some countries might count people differently or have more accurate ways of counting. Because of this, comparing countries can sometimes be tricky. If you add up all the numbers on this list, it might not exactly match the total world population.

Places that are a full part of a country, like the different parts of the United Kingdom, are counted as one country. We don't include groups like the European Union here, even though they have many people. We also don't include places without people living there all the time, like parts of Antarctica.

Countries and Territories by Population

This table lists countries and territories by how many people live in them.

  • The numbers in the first column (like "1", "2", "3") are for the 193 countries that are members of the United Nations, plus two observer states.
  • Places that are dependent territories or parts of other countries (like Hong Kong, which is part of China) don't get a numbered rank.
  • Some countries that are not fully recognized by everyone are also included, but they don't have a numbered rank either.


See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Anexo:Países y territorios dependientes por población para niños

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List of countries and dependencies by population Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.