Most Populous Countries

Order countries by population.

Order countries by population — the world's most populous states, and the tier structure worth carrying in your head.

The tiers

Population is easier to hold as bands than as a ranked list.

The top two are each well over a billion and far ahead of everyone else. The United States is a clear third but an order of magnitude below them. Then comes a tier of large states — Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Brazil, Bangladesh — each several hundred million or approaching it.

Below that, most large European countries sit in a fairly narrow band, and below them the great majority of the world's countries are under ten million.

That last point surprises people: most countries are small. The handful of giants distort the mental average badly.

The systematic misjudgements

African populations are underestimated. Nigeria has more people than any European country by a wide margin, and Ethiopia and Egypt are each comparable to the largest European states.

Indonesia is forgotten. It is one of the most populous countries on Earth and rarely features in anyone's mental top five.

Russia is overestimated, because people carry its area ranking across to population where it sits much lower.

Bangladesh is underestimated, badly. It is small in area and very large in population.

Growth changes the order

Population rankings are not static. The fastest-growing countries are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, and the order of the middle tiers shifts over time as a result. A ranked list learned a decade ago will already be wrong in places, which is worth knowing when a quiz disagrees with you.

Where to go next

Higher or Lower: Population drills the same knowledge as head-to-head comparisons, which is a more efficient practice format than trying to memorise a ranked list — you learn from each round rather than either recalling or not. Cities are the next step down: the Biggest Cities in the World Quiz covers the 33 megacities in the UN's 2025 count, led by Jakarta, Dhaka and Tokyo.

Frequently asked questions

Which country has the largest population?

The top two — China and India — are each well over a billion and far ahead of everyone else, with their relative order having changed in recent years as India's population overtook China's.

Which African country has the most people?

Nigeria, and it has a larger population than any country in Europe. Ethiopia and Egypt follow, each comparable in size to the largest European states.

How many countries have fewer than ten million people?

The great majority of them. A small number of very large countries distort the mental average, but most of the world's roughly 195 states are well under ten million, and many are under one million.

Play Most Populous offline in the app

Most Populous Countries and the rest of the arcade are in the free Geography Quiz Arcade app: Get it on Google Play · Download on the App Store.