Population by country, 1960 to 2025
India was the world's most populous country in 2025 with 1.46 billion people, ahead of China's 1.41 billion. The United States is a distant third at 342 million, followed by Indonesia at 286 million, Pakistan at 255 million, and Nigeria at 238 million.
How it is measured
The figures come from the World Bank's World Development Indicators (indicator SP.POP.TOTL): the midyear de facto population of each country, counting all residents regardless of citizenship or legal status, one value per country per year. This page covers every country the World Bank reports, about 217 in all; the chart shows the ten most populous at each year of the replay.
What the chart shows
The countries on this page held 3.0 billion people in 1960 and 8.2 billion in 2025. The top two barely move: China led for six decades until India passed it in 2021. Most of the movement is further down the list. Nigeria grew from 45 million in 1960 to 238 million and climbed to sixth, while Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom, fifth, seventh, and ninth in 1960, have slid to twelfth, nineteenth, and twenty-second as their populations flattened.
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When did India pass China in population?
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