Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Argentina and South Korea, side by side

Argentina in 2026: half the people are older than 34. South Korea: half are older than 47.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Argentina 45,538,401 people · South Korea 51,748,739

Argentina 46.0 million people Half are older than 34 13 in 100 are 65 or older

South Korea 51.6 million people Half are older than 47 21 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

ARG × KOR · 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.

Argentina

Children, under 15: 20
Aged 15 to 64: 67
Aged 65 and over: 13

South Korea

Children, under 15: 10
Aged 15 to 64: 69
Aged 65 and over: 21

ARG × KOR · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

If the birth rates of this year held for a whole lifetime, a woman in Argentina would have about 1.5 children and a woman in South Korea about 0.8. Babies born this year can expect about 78 years of life in Argentina and about 85 in South Korea.

Children per woman, 2026

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

Argentina 1.5

South Korea 0.8

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.

Argentina 78 years

South Korea 85 years

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

ARG × KOR · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

South Korea is the larger of the two, with about 10% more people than Argentina: 51.6 million to 46.0 million.

Set each against its own 1950 self and Argentina's population is 2.7 times what it was in 1950, South Korea's population is 2.6 times what it was in 1950.

Looking ahead: Argentina's population is expected to peak in 2050, and South Korea's population peaked in 2020. The UN expects Argentina to have more people than South Korea from 2043. In 2100: 38.3 million in Argentina, 21.8 million in South Korea (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Argentina: people	South Korea: people	Argentina: half older than	South Korea: half older than	Argentina: children per woman	South Korea: children per woman	Argentina: life expectancy	South Korea: life expectancy
1950	17.0180 million	19.7573 million	25.4	18.7	3.16	6.06	61.3	22.2
1960	20.3861 million	26.1154 million	26.5	19.3	3.14	5.99	64.2	53.8
1970	23.8783 million	32.5422 million	26.9	18.7	3.08	4.46	65.7	62.2
1980	28.0116 million	38.1411 million	27.0	21.9	3.30	2.73	68.6	64.8
1990	32.7559 million	44.0814 million	27.3	26.8	3.03	1.60	71.6	71.0
2000	37.2140 million	46.7667 million	27.8	31.7	2.59	1.47	73.9	76.2
2010	41.2887 million	48.7693 million	29.9	37.6	2.41	1.23	75.7	80.7
2023	45.5384 million	51.7487 million	33.1	45.5	1.50	0.72	77.4	84.3
2030*	46.5850 million	51.1886 million	35.9	49.5	1.51	0.81	78.4	85.1
2040*	47.8176 million	48.9487 million	39.5	54.3	1.52	0.93	79.9	86.2
2050*	48.3089 million	45.1431 million	42.9	57.7	1.54	1.03	81.4	87.3
2060*	47.6387 million	39.8572 million	46.7	61.1	1.55	1.10	82.8	88.5
2070*	46.1005 million	34.4530 million	50.1	62.5	1.56	1.16	84.2	89.6
2080*	43.9762 million	29.6715 million	50.7	64.0	1.57	1.21	85.4	90.7
2090*	41.2550 million	25.4491 million	51.7	62.2	1.57	1.26	86.6	91.9
2100*	38.2560 million	21.8488 million	52.7	60.9	1.58	1.30	87.7	93.1

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

ARG − KOR · 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 Argentina and which is South Korea, 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; Argentina is drawn in solid blue squares and South Korea 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: Argentina · South Korea. Or pick any two places with the boxes at the top of this page.

Other comparisons

Apparatus

Sources and method

Both sides of this comparison come from the UN Population Division's World Population Prospects 2024 — the same release, the same tables, counted to 2023 and projected beyond it on the medium variant. That shared origin is what a comparison rests on.

The working behind the median age, the rounding in the “100 people” pictures and the reason the regions are kept out of the all-country views are all set out in the method.

This is one of 250 pairs with a page. The boxes at the top will take any other two places you want to see side by side.

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

Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries