Brunei population

On the UN's projection, Brunei will have the most working-age people it ever has in 2038: 351,462 people aged 15–64. In 2023 it had 332,575.

aged 15–64   children under 15   aged 65 and over

How to read this: take 100 people of working age — the orange row — and the two rows under it are the children (teal) and the people of 65 and over (violet) who lived alongside them in 2023.

Fewer than 50 dependants live alongside every 100 people aged 15–64 in 47 years: 2000–2046.

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

How to read this: the strip runs 1950 to 2100. Coloured years are the ones with under 50 dependants for every 100 people aged 15–64; grey years are the rest, and a hatched year has not happened yet.

How every country compares

In 2020–2025 Brunei gains 46 people a year: everyone who arrives, minus everyone who leaves. The age at which that happens most is 20–24, at 154 a year more arriving than leaving.

more arrive than leave   more leave than arrive

How to read this: age runs left to right, babies to 100. A blue square above the line means arrivals outnumber departures at that age, an orange square below it means the opposite. The figures are the UN's projection for 2020–2025; nobody recorded migration by age before 2020.

Its best and worst years between 1950 and 2023: a gain of 2,489 (2009), and a loss of 1,538 (1970).

In 2024, 119,933 people living in Brunei had been born in another country, 26 of every 100 people there, against 29 in 1990.

How migration works everywhere

Of every 100 babies born in Brunei in 2023, 2 had a mother under 20, 76 a mother aged 20 to 34 and 22 a mother aged 35 or older. In 1950 it was 9 under 20 and 16 aged 35 or older.

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

How to read this: one block a year, 100 squares in each, a square for every hundredth baby. The colour is the mother's age group, and the three numbers underneath are those groups in order, youngest first.

Babies born, 2023

6,237

Average age when women have a baby

30.7 years

28.8 in 1950

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

9

99 in 1950

At the end of 2025, 175 people from Brunei were living in another country. UNHCR records nobody displaced inside it, and nobody who had crossed a border into it.

1. Brunei nationals abroad175

crossed a border

How to read this: count the squares — 5 people each. The row is people from Brunei living in another country, wherever they are.

In 2025, 131 people from Brunei asked for asylum in another country. Who asks for asylum, and who is given it

How the world's displacement is counted

Of every 100 people in Brunei in 2025, 29 lived in a city, 53 in a town or suburb and 18 in the countryside.

How to read this: everyone here, shrunk to 100 squares, with the colour saying whether that hundredth person lives in a city, a town or the countryside. Every country is measured by the same rule.

How the world's people live

Of every 100 adults in Brunei in 2020, 6 never went to school and 39 finished upper secondary or went further.

Compare two generations. Aged 60–64, 9.2 of every 100 women and 16.5 of every 100 men never went to school; aged 25–29, 1.6 and 1.4.

The middle projection has its working-age people most numerous in 2035; those among them who finished upper secondary are most numerous later, in 2075.

How to read this: 100 squares, one for every hundredth adult aged 25 or over, from least schooling on the left to most on the right. Counted by the Wittgenstein Centre for 2020.

How far the world's people went in school

Brunei had 2 cities in 2025, home to 136,250 people.

1. Bandar Seri Begawan72,133
2. Lambak64,117

How to read this: the 2 largest cities in 2025, bars on one scale. A city is the whole built-up area on the UN's rule, not the city's own boundary.

All the world's cities