Barbados population

Barbados had the most working-age people it is ever expected to have in 2017: 190,028 people aged 15–64, against 187,527 in 2023.

aged 15–64   children under 15   aged 65 and over

How to read this: one orange square for each of 100 people aged 15–64 in 2023. Beneath them, teal for the children living alongside those 100 and violet for the people aged 65 or older.

Fewer than 50 dependants live alongside every 100 people aged 15–64 in 22 years: 2000–2021.

fewer than 50 dependants per 100   the same, projected   50 or more

How to read this: 1950 on the left, 2100 on the right; coloured in the years with fewer than 50 dependants per 100 working-age people, grey in the rest, hatched where that is a projection.

How every country compares

In 2020–2025 Barbados loses 51 people a year: everyone who arrives, minus everyone who leaves. The age at which that happens most is 20–24, at 20 a year more leaving than arriving.

more arrive than leave   more leave than arrive

How to read this: each column is one age, youngest on the left. Above the line, in blue, are the ages gaining people; below it, in orange, the ages losing them. This is the UN's projection for 2020–2025 — the record of migration by age does not go back beyond 2020.

In the years that were counted, 1950–2023, the most it gained in one year was 526 (2008) and the most it lost was 4,852 (1970).

In 2024, 35,187 people living in Barbados had been born in another country, 13 of every 100 people there, against 9 in 1990.

How migration works everywhere

Of every 100 babies born in Barbados in 2023, 13 had a mother under 20, 70 a mother aged 20 to 34 and 17 a mother aged 35 or older. In 1950 it was 18 under 20 and 14 aged 35 or older.

The mother's age: under 20 20 to 34 35 or older projected

How to read this: shrink a year's babies to 100 and colour each one by the age of its mother — that is a block. Under it, the same three groups as numbers, starting with the youngest mothers.

Babies born, 2023

3,155

Average age when women have a baby

27.7 years

27.2 in 1950

Babies a year per 1,000 girls aged 15–19

45

138 in 1950

At the end of 2025, Barbados was hosting 13 people who had crossed a border into it, fewer than 1 in every 10,000 people living there.

1. hosted from abroad13
2. Barbados nationals abroad1,299

stayed inside their own country   crossed a border

How to read this: each square is 50 people, so the rows can be compared with one another. The last row is people from Barbados living in another country, wherever they are. An outlined square means fewer people than one square stands for.

In 2025, 365 people from Barbados asked for asylum in another country. Of every 100 people from Barbados whose claims were decided that year, 68 were given protection. Who asks for asylum, and who is given it

How the world's displacement is counted

Of every 100 people in Barbados in 2025, 43 lived in a city, 43 in a town or suburb and 14 in the countryside.

How to read this: one square for every hundredth person, coloured as the key shows. Because the rule behind the colours is the same everywhere, two countries' squares can be compared directly.

How the world's people live

Of every 100 adults in Barbados in 2020, 4 never went to school and 45 finished upper secondary or went further.

Its people aged 15 to 64 were most numerous in 2020, the first year counted, and are never as many again in the middle projection; the ones who finished upper secondary are most numerous later, in 2065.

How to read this: every adult here as one of 100 squares. The stronger the colour, the further that person went in school (the Wittgenstein Centre, 2020).

How far the world's people went in school

Barbados had 1 city in 2025, home to 121,398 people.

1. Bridgetown121,398

How to read this: one bar for the city, 2025, all on the same scale. "City" here means the built-up area the UN measures, not the boundary the city draws itself.

All the world's cities