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 United StatesGermanyPeruSeychelles
279,04081,43920,96378
282,16281,47421,29179
284,96981,53421,63180
287,62581,59521,98081
290,10881,56622,33982
292,80581,47322,70783
295,51781,35423,05584
298,38081,19023,38085
301,23181,00923,70886
304,09480,78123,94487
306,77280,50024,08787
309,32780,30124,22888
311,58380,29224,36489
313,87880,44324,49190
316,06080,66324,60791
318,38681,00024,71492
320,73981,70424,81292
323,07282,36624,90493
325,12282,67424,99994
326,83882,92325,40395
328,33083,11025,96696
331,51283,17826,30897
332,03283,21326,50898
333,28883,81126,77198

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.

Peru

  • 1600–1812: Arroyo Abad, L. and J.L. van Zanden (2016), “Growth under Extractive Institutions? Latin American Per Capita GDP in Colonial Times” Journal of Economic History 76(4): 1182–1215.
  • 1812–1870: Seminario, B. (2015). El Desarrallo de la Economía Peruana en la Era Moderna, Universidad de Pacifico, Lima
  • 1870-1901: Bertola, L and Ocampo, J.A. (2012) The Economic Development of Latin America since Independence. Oxford, Oxford U.P, Table A2
  • 1900-1913: Maddison, A. Monitoring the World Economy, 1995
  • 1913-1941: C.A. Bolona Behr, "Tariff Policies in Peru, 1880-1980", Ph.D. thesis, Oxford University, 1981;
  • 1942-1950: "Cuadros del producto interno bruto en dollares de 1950", CEPAL, Santiago, October 1962, mimeographed;
  • 1945-1950: Series Historicas del Crecimiento de America Latina, CEPAL, Santiago, 1978.

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