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 Congo - KinshasaUnited StatesGermanyFrance
51,181279,04081,43960,396
52,782282,16281,47460,811
54,453284,96981,53461,255
56,170287,62581,59561,703
57,860290,10881,56662,141
59,599292,80581,47362,600
61,474295,51781,35463,073
63,479298,38081,19063,513
65,590301,23181,00963,906
67,800304,09480,78164,264
70,114306,77280,50064,594
72,550309,32780,30164,913
75,138311,58380,29265,231
77,792313,87880,44365,552
80,534316,06080,66365,891
83,368318,38681,00066,212
86,229320,73981,70466,480
89,193323,07282,36666,730
92,209325,12282,67467,015
95,232326,83882,92367,347
98,320328,33083,11067,660
101,499331,51283,17867,901
104,767332,03283,21368,114
108,171333,28883,81168,387

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

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).

Germany

  • 1500-1850: Pfister, U. (2022). Economic Growth in Germany, 1500–1850. The Journal of Economic History, 82(4), 1071–1107
  • 1850-1950: Hoffmann, Grumbach and Hesse, op. cit., pp. 454-5.

France

  • 1: Scheidel, W. and Friesen, S. J., ‘The size of the economy and the distribution of income in the Roman Empire’, Journal of Roman Studies, 99 (2009), pp. 61–91
  • 1276–1800: Ridolfi, L., & Nuvolari, A. (2021). L’histoire immobile? A reappraisal of French economic growth using the demand-side approach, 1280–1850. European Review of Economic History, 25(3), 405–428
  • 1850-1913: Toutain, Le Produit interieur de la France de 1789 a 1982, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 1987
  • 1920-1950: Toutain, Le Produit interieur de la France de 1789 a 1982, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 1987

No separate list is published for Congo - Kinshasa; the database as a whole is cited above.