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Population, long-run history: compare countries

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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 CanadaUnited StatesSudanSouth Africa
30,510279,04026,16846,257
30,796282,16226,77146,958
31,132284,96927,38747,820
31,473287,62528,01748,480
31,758290,10828,66248,951
32,055292,80529,32149,478
32,360295,51729,99650,054
32,688298,38030,68650,667
33,007301,23131,39351,339
33,367304,09432,13752,077
33,750306,77233,07852,862
34,127309,32733,89153,682
34,463311,58334,56854,518
34,839313,87835,29355,356
35,209316,06036,09356,215
35,565318,38637,05857,075
35,831320,73938,16557,947
36,239323,07239,29458,830
36,677325,12240,51259,715
37,198326,83841,76460,595
37,736328,33042,95261,469
38,174331,51244,12162,355
38,383332,03245,29062,900
38,685333,28846,49863,382

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

Canada

  • 1820-1850: Maddison, A. Monitoring the World Economy, 1995
  • 1851-70: O.J. Firestone, "Canada's Changing Economy in the Second Half of the 19th Century", NBER, New York, 1957, processed, amended for 1820–70 to include income of the indigenous population (taken to be $400 per capita in 1820 and 1870)
  • 1870-1926: M.C. Urquart and Associates, ed., Gross National Product, Canada 1870-1926: The Derivation of the Estimates, McGill Queen's University Press, Montreal, 1993, pp. 11-12 and 24-5,
  • 1926-1950: Statistics Canada, National Income and Expenditure Accounts, vol. 1, The Annual Estimates 1926-1974, Ottawa, 1975, p. 323. 1960 onwards from OECD, National Accounts.

United States

  • 1650 - 1790: McCusker, John J., ‘Colonial Statistics’, Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Time to the Present, in S. B. Carter, S. S. Gartner, M. R. Haineset al. New York, Cambridge University Press. V-671.
  • 1790 - 1870: Sutch, R. (2006). National Income and Product. Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Time to the Present, in S. B. Carter, S. S. Gartner, M. R. Haineset al. New York, Cambridge University Press III-23-25.
  • 1800-1830: Prados de la Escosura, L. (2009). “Lost Decades? Economic Performance in Post-Independence Latin America,” Journal of Latin America Studies 41: 279–307. (updated data)
  • 1820-1950: GDP movement from Maddison (1995a), amended for 1820–70 to include income of the indigenous population (taken to be $400 per capita in 1820 and 1870).

South Africa

  • 1700–1900 (Cape Colony): Fourie, J. and Van Zanden, J.L. (2013). GDP in the Dutch Cape Colony: the Nationals Accounts of a Slave-Based Society, South African Journal of Economics, vol. 81 (4): 467 - 490

No separate list is published for Sudan; the database as a whole is cited above.