Skip to content
ChartBasis
Choose a language: English

Population, long-run history: compare countries

See Population, long-run history for up to four countries side by side.

Countries being compared

Four countries are being compared, the most the chart can show clearly. Remove one to add another.

Population, long-run history by country

Population, long-run history

Annual, Persons, thousands

Source: Maddison Project Database 2023
Population, long-run history: latest observations by country
Date BarbadosIcelandQatarChina
2732776271,248,899
2742816591,258,401
2752856911,267,178
2762887241,275,379
2782897571,283,064
2792938501,290,620
2802961,0011,298,245
2813041,1531,305,116
2823111,3061,311,877
2833191,4601,318,559
2853191,6151,324,993
2863181,7701,331,357
2873191,9041,339,549
2883212,0101,349,537
2893242,1031,357,520
2903272,1871,366,654
2913312,2611,373,406
2913352,3261,382,401
2923432,3841,390,136
2933532,4351,395,398
2943612,4801,400,035
2943662,5191,402,060
2953722,5531,402,537
2953802,5591,401,693

Source: Bolt, J. and van Zanden, J.L. (2024), Maddison style estimates of the evolution of the world economy: A new 2023 update, Journal of Economic Surveys, 1-41, DOI 10.1111/joes.12618. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. The original sources are listed on each page.

All data sources

Original sources of these estimates

GDP pc: 2008 - 2022: Total Economy Database the Conference Board for all countries included in TED. Otherwise UN national accounts statistics

Iceland

  • 1870-1945: Jonsson, G. (1998). The gross domestic product of Iceland, 1870-1945. Nordiska Historiska Nasjonalregnkaper, Artikkelsamling from Workshop IV, Solstrand 13-15 NOvember 1998.

China

  • 1000-1661: Broadberry, S.N., Guan, Hanhui and David Daokui Li (2018), “China, Europe and the Great Divergence: a Study in Historical National Accounting, 980-1850”, Journal of Economic History, 78, 4, 955-1000
  • 1661–1933: Broadberry, S.N., Guan, Hanhui and David Daokui Li (2018), “China, Europe and the Great Divergence: a Study in Historical National Accounting, 980-1850”, Journal of Economic History, 78, 4, 955-1000
  • 1661–1933: Xu, Y. Z. Shi, B. van Leeuwen, Y Ni, Z Zhang, and Y Ma, (2016) 'Chinese National Income, ca. 1661-1933', Australian Economic History Review 57(3), 368–393
  • 1952–2008: Wu, Harry X. (2014), “China’s growth and productivity performance debate revisited – Accounting for China’s sources of growth with a new data set” The Conference Board Economics Program Working Paper Series EWP#14-01.

No separate list is published for Barbados, Qatar; the database as a whole is cited above.