Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Afghanistan and Spain, side by side

In 2026, half of the people in Afghanistan are older than 18. In Spain, half are older than 47.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Afghanistan 41,454,761 people · Spain 47,911,580

Afghanistan 45.0 million people Half are older than 18 3 in 100 are 65 or older

Spain 47.9 million people Half are older than 47 22 in 100 are 65 or older

How to read this: each pyramid stacks a place’s people by age — babies at the bottom, the oldest at the top, men on the left and women on the right. A wide bottom means many children; a wide top means many older people.

Compare shapes Compare sizes

Each bar is a share of its own place’s people, so a small country and a large one can be read side by side.

Year 2026 · UN projection

estimatesprojections

men women projected

Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries

AFG × ESP · 2026 · age groups

If each place were 100 people

Shrink each population to 100 people and count them. Dots are children under 15, filled squares are people aged 15 to 64, and open squares are people 65 and over. The picture follows the year slider above.

Afghanistan

Children, under 15: 42
Aged 15 to 64: 55
Aged 65 and over: 3

Spain

Children, under 15: 12
Aged 15 to 64: 66
Aged 65 and over: 22

AFG × ESP · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

Afghanistan is at about 4.6 children for each woman, at this year's rates; Spain is at about 1.2. Around 2.1 children per woman keeps a population the same size over time, leaving migration aside. Life expectancy at birth this year: about 67 years in Afghanistan, about 84 in Spain.

Children per woman, 2026

Each figure is one child: how many children a woman would have in her lifetime at that year’s rates.

Afghanistan 4.6

Spain 1.2

The dashed line at 2.1 is about what it takes for each generation to replace the one before it, leaving migration aside.

How long a newborn can expect to live, 2026

Each block is ten years of life, if the death rates of that year stayed the same all life long.

Afghanistan 67 years

Spain 84 years

Hatched marks are UN projections (medium variant), not measurements.

AFG × ESP · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

There are 47.9 million people in Spain and 45.0 million in Afghanistan: about as many people as Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's population is 5.8 times what it was in 1950; Spain's population is 1.7 times what it was in 1950.

Afghanistan's population is still growing in 2100. Meanwhile Spain's population peaked in 2023. The UN expects Afghanistan to have more people than Spain from 2029. In 2100: 130 million in Afghanistan, 33.1 million in Spain (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Afghanistan: people	Spain: people	Afghanistan: half older than	Spain: half older than	Afghanistan: children per woman	Spain: children per woman	Afghanistan: life expectancy	Spain: life expectancy
1950	7.77618 million	28.0770 million	19.4	27.5	7.25	2.47	28.2	61.8
1960	9.03504 million	30.4049 million	18.9	29.4	7.28	2.81	32.8	69.2
1970	11.2901 million	33.8127 million	18.0	30.1	7.40	2.88	37.5	72.2
1980	13.1693 million	37.5376 million	16.8	30.7	7.64	2.21	39.3	75.5
1990	12.0457 million	39.0850 million	16.0	33.5	7.58	1.36	45.1	77.0
2000	20.1303 million	41.0198 million	15.0	37.3	7.57	1.21	55.0	79.4
2010	28.2841 million	46.8405 million	15.6	40.2	6.20	1.37	60.7	82.0
2023	41.4548 million	47.9116 million	17.9	45.9	4.84	1.21	66.0	83.7
2030*	50.0394 million	47.6105 million	19.2	49.0	4.22	1.26	67.6	84.6
2040*	63.3479 million	46.5917 million	21.5	52.0	3.56	1.31	69.5	85.9
2050*	76.8851 million	44.9286 million	24.0	52.8	3.09	1.36	70.9	87.1
2060*	90.3627 million	42.2108 million	26.6	53.0	2.76	1.39	72.3	88.4
2070*	103.417 million	39.0358 million	29.1	53.7	2.51	1.43	73.6	89.5
2080*	114.674 million	36.5245 million	31.4	52.6	2.31	1.46	74.8	90.7
2090*	123.305 million	34.7742 million	33.7	52.4	2.17	1.47	76.1	91.8
2100*	130.217 million	33.1275 million	35.8	53.2	2.06	1.48	77.3	92.9

* UN projection, medium variant. People at mid-year; ages and life expectancy in years.

AFG − ESP · 1950–2100 · every age

Which ages each place has more of

Each column is a year and each row an age, from babies at the bottom to 100 at the top. The shade of a cell shows which place has more of its people at that age — the key beside the picture tells you which shade is Afghanistan and which is Spain, and the in-between shade means the same. Because it compares shares, a small place and a large one can be compared fairly.

236 countries · 1950–2100

Where they sit among all countries

Every country in the world, every year from 1950 to 2100. The grey cloud shows where most countries are; Afghanistan is drawn in solid blue squares and Spain in open orange squares, so you can see whether each is ahead of the crowd, behind it or in the middle.

More comparisons

Keep exploring

Each place on its own: Afghanistan · Spain. Or pick any two places with the boxes at the top of this page.

Other comparisons

Apparatus

Sources and method

Afghanistan and Spain are drawn here from one source and one release: the UN Population Division's World Population Prospects 2024, counted through 2023 and projected on its medium variant after that. Two places read off the same tables can be set against each other; two read off different tables cannot.

How the median age and the “100 people” pictures are worked out, and why the pictures of every country leave the regions out: how the figures here are put together.

250 comparisons have a page of their own; any other two places can be compared from the boxes at the top.

Sources: UN WPP 2024 · flag-icons. Every source, its licence and how to cite it →

Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries