Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Australia and Niger, side by side

In 2026, half of the people in Australia are older than 40. In Niger, half are older than 17.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Australia 26,451,124 people · Niger 26,159,867

Australia 27.2 million people Half are older than 40 18 in 100 are 65 or older

Niger 28.8 million people Half are older than 17 3 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

AUS × NER · 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.

Australia

Children, under 15: 18
Aged 15 to 64: 64
Aged 65 and over: 18

Niger

Children, under 15: 46
Aged 15 to 64: 51
Aged 65 and over: 3

AUS × NER · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

Australia is at about 1.6 children for each woman, at this year's rates; Niger is at about 5.6. Around 2.1 children per woman keeps a population the same size over time, leaving migration aside. Life expectancy at birth this year: about 84 years in Australia, about 62 in Niger.

Children per woman, 2026

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

Australia 1.6

Niger 5.6

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.

Australia 84 years

Niger 62 years

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

AUS × NER · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

There are 28.8 million people in Niger and 27.2 million in Australia: about as many people as Australia.

Since 1950 the two have moved differently: Australia's population is 3.3 times what it was in 1950, while Niger's population is 11.1 times what it was in 1950.

Looking ahead: Australia's population is still growing in 2100, and Niger's population is still growing in 2100. In 2100: 43.1 million in Australia, 90.8 million in Niger (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Australia: people	Niger: people	Australia: half older than	Niger: half older than	Australia: children per woman	Niger: children per woman	Australia: life expectancy	Niger: life expectancy
1950	8.17675 million	2.59781 million	30.4	15.0	3.06	7.56	69.0	35.9
1960	10.2808 million	3.50505 million	29.6	15.4	3.45	7.53	70.9	36.2
1970	12.5994 million	4.65027 million	27.6	15.8	2.86	7.51	70.7	35.9
1980	14.7213 million	6.13597 million	29.4	16.3	1.90	7.78	74.6	39.3
1990	17.1263 million	8.28606 million	32.1	16.5	1.91	7.81	77.0	41.7
2000	19.1325 million	11.5096 million	35.4	16.2	1.76	7.83	79.6	49.2
2010	22.1416 million	16.5488 million	37.0	15.3	1.95	7.64	82.0	57.1
2023	26.4511 million	26.1599 million	38.8	16.3	1.64	6.06	83.9	61.2
2030*	28.1885 million	32.5181 million	40.5	17.4	1.64	5.08	84.9	62.8
2040*	30.3575 million	42.3167 million	42.5	19.6	1.64	3.91	86.1	64.8
2050*	32.5070 million	52.5139 million	43.0	22.2	1.64	3.22	87.3	66.5
2060*	34.5627 million	62.7243 million	43.9	25.0	1.63	2.77	88.3	68.0
2070*	36.6351 million	72.1664 million	44.6	27.9	1.63	2.47	89.4	69.4
2080*	38.7008 million	80.2270 million	44.9	30.6	1.64	2.26	90.5	70.6
2090*	40.8767 million	86.4982 million	45.1	33.2	1.64	2.11	91.6	71.9
2100*	43.1437 million	90.8193 million	45.8	35.5	1.63	2.01	92.6	73.1

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

AUS − NER · 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 Australia and which is Niger, 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; Australia is drawn in solid blue squares and Niger 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: Australia · Niger. Or pick any two places with the boxes at the top of this page.

Other comparisons

Apparatus

Sources and method

Australia and Niger 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.

There are 250 ready-made comparisons on this site. For anything else, name two places in the boxes at the top of the page.

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

Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries