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The World’s 7.5 Billion People, in One Chart

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The World's 7.5 Billion People, in One Chart

Which countries do people live in, globally?

It’s a very simple question, but it’s also hard to get an accurate sense of the answer by browsing through a lengthy table of country-level population data.

That’s because there are close to 200 countries spread around the globe, with populations ranging from near 1.4 billion (China or India) to countries a mere 0.001% of that size. How is it possible to do the mental math in interpreting such a wide range of data points simultaneously?

Visualizing the World’s Population

Today’s data visualization comes to us from PopulationPyramid.net, a fantastic resource for data on global population numbers.

It allows us to see the location of the world’s 7.5 billion people by resizing countries based on their populations and then coloring and organizing them by region.

This simple application of data visualization makes it more intuitive to comprehend where people live around the globe, as well as how different countries compare in size.

Regional Populations

The first thing you might notice on the graphic is the relative size of regions, with Asia taking up a whopping 60% of the visual space.

Here are those numbers by region broken down further:

RankRegionShare of Global Population (%)Population
#1Asia60%4.5 billion
#2Africa16%1.2 billion
#3Europe10%729 million
#4North America7%534 million
#5South America6%424 million
#6Central America1%47 million
#7Oceania1%42 million

When you look at it this way, you can really see how the math breaks down.

About 75% of people reside in Asia or Africa. Meanwhile, the regions of Europe, North America, South America, and Oceania just total together to 25% of the mix.

The 10 Most Populous Countries

There are some countries that are clear standouts on the data visualization.

For example, China and India combine to 2.7 billion people, together accounting for 36% of the total global population.

Those heavyweights aside, there are other notable countries that take up significant amounts of real estate on the visualization as well:

RankCountryPopulation (2017)% of global total
#1🇨🇳 China1,388,232,69318.5%
#2🇮🇳 India1,342,512,70617.9%
#3🇺🇸 United States326,474,0134.3%
#4🇮🇩 Indonesia263,510,1463.5%
#5🇧🇷 Brazil211,243,2202.8%
#6🇵🇰 Pakistan196,744,3762.6%
#7🇳🇬 Nigeria191,835,9362.6%
#8🇧🇩 Bangladesh164,827,7182.2%
#9🇷🇺 Russia143,375,0061.9%
#10🇲🇽 Mexico130,222,8151.7%
Top 10 Total4,358,978,62958.0%

The United States, Indonesia, Brazil, and Pakistan rank between #3 and #6, and have about a billion people between them.

Nigeria, which is #7 on the list, has the world’s fastest growing megacity within its borders. Further, Bangladesh is also a noteworthy entry since it is one of the densest populations globally, with 1,138.9 people per square kilometer of land.

A Final Look at Global Population

This isn’t the first time we’ve shown you a data visualization that organizes the global population – here’s one we previously published that shows each country in a bubble chart:

The Population of Every Country is Shown on this Bubble Chart

While this uses slightly older data, it is still interesting to see how data visualization can help us understand a complex and wide-ranging set of data that is relevant to everyday life.

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Demographics

Top 20 Countries Where Older People Are the Happiest

Advanced economies are the happiest countries for older people, likely due to their stronger social security systems.

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A cropped chart ranking the top 20 happiest countries, for those over 60 years old, sourced from the World Happiness Report 2024.

Top 20 Countries Where Older People Are the Happiest

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

The newest global happiness index doesn’t have any massive surprises from the ongoing trends of the last decade: Europe generally does the best, Africa is still finding its footing, and Asia and South America have vast rank disparities between constituent nations.

However, as the World Happiness Report notes, happiness levels differ across age groups, and countries’ overall ranks tend to obfuscate how the old and young feel separately. To counter this, the report also creates a happiness index by age.

We’ve visualized the top 20 happiest countries according to those aged above 60. For comparison, we have also included a country’s overall index rank.

Data and Takeaways

ℹ️ Gallup’s survey in Israel occurred after October 7th, but before much of the subsequent warfare. As a result, overall life evaluations in the country fell by 0.9 for 2023. Note that each country’s rank is based on a three-year average score.

The top two countries where the seniors are most satisfied—Denmark and Finland—also happen to be the top two countries on the overall happiness index.

As a general trend, advanced economies make up the bulk of this top 20 list, likely due to their stronger social security systems and financial security. Relatedly, they also tend to do well when it comes to the best countries to retire in.

CountryHappiness Rank
(Age 60+)
Overall Happiness
Rank (All ages)
Rank
Difference
🇩🇰 Denmark12-1
🇫🇮 Finland21+1
🇳🇴 Norway37-4
🇸🇪 Sweden440
🇮🇸 Iceland53+2
🇳🇿 New Zealand611-5
🇳🇱 Netherlands76+1
🇨🇦 Canada815-7
🇦🇺 Australia910-1
🇺🇸 U.S.1023-13
🇦🇪 UAE1122-11
🇱🇺 Luxembourg128+4
🇰🇼 Kuwait13130
🇨🇭 Switzerland149+5
🇦🇹 Austria1514+1
🇮🇪 Ireland1617-1
🇨🇷 Costa Rica1712+5
🇮🇱 Israel185+13
🇧🇪 Belgium1916+3
🇬🇧 UK20200

Norway, at third, has the first real discrepancy, with its elderly population ranking four places higher compared to its overall 7th place rank.

New Zealand (6th) and Canada (8th) also have gaps with their overall ranks: indicating that the older generation is happier than other generations within the country.

But for the U.S., (10th) and the UAE (11th), this rank discrepancy is in the double-digits.

In fact, when ranking only by those aged below 30, the U.S. ranks outside of the top 50, indicating that its younger residents are significantly unhappier than their older counterparts.

This is an interesting phenomenon mirrored in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. According to the report, as recently as a decade ago, the younger generation in these countries were about as happy as those aged over 60.

“In the West, the received wisdom was that the young are the happiest and that happiness thereafter declines until middle age, followed by substantial recovery.” –- World Happiness Report.

For other countries like Costa Rica (17) and Israel (18), this pattern reverses. Their overall rank is higher than their rank for older populations, indicating that the young are happier.

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