Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Australia and Poland, side by side

In 2026, half of the people in Australia are older than 40. In Poland, half are older than 44.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Australia 26,451,124 people · Poland 38,762,844

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

Poland 37.8 million people Half are older than 44 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

AUS × POL · 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

Poland

Children, under 15: 14
Aged 15 to 64: 65
Aged 65 and over: 21

AUS × POL · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

At today's rates, a woman in Australia would have about 1.6 children in her lifetime. In Poland, about 1.3. A baby born in Australia this year can expect to live about 84 years. In Poland, about 79.

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

Poland 1.3

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

Poland 79 years

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

AUS × POL · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

There are 37.8 million people in Poland and 27.2 million in Australia: about 40% more people than Australia.

Australia's population is 3.3 times what it was in 1950; Poland's population is 1.5 times what it was in 1950.

Australia's population is still growing in 2100. Meanwhile Poland's population peaked in 2023. The UN expects Australia to have more people than Poland from 2051. In 2100: 43.1 million in Australia, 19.3 million in Poland (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Australia: people	Poland: people	Australia: half older than	Poland: half older than	Australia: children per woman	Poland: children per woman	Australia: life expectancy	Poland: life expectancy
1950	8.17675 million	24.7802 million	30.4	25.8	3.06	3.65	69.0	58.3
1960	10.2808 million	29.5760 million	29.6	26.6	3.45	3.00	70.9	67.1
1970	12.5994 million	32.5426 million	27.6	28.3	2.86	2.25	70.7	69.6
1980	14.7213 million	35.5765 million	29.4	29.5	1.90	2.28	74.6	70.5
1990	17.1263 million	38.0555 million	32.1	32.4	1.91	2.06	77.0	70.6
2000	19.1325 million	38.2581 million	35.4	35.3	1.76	1.37	79.6	73.7
2010	22.1416 million	38.0954 million	37.0	37.9	1.95	1.41	82.0	76.3
2023	26.4511 million	38.7628 million	38.8	42.3	1.64	1.30	83.9	78.6
2030*	28.1885 million	37.1985 million	40.5	46.0	1.64	1.33	84.9	79.8
2040*	30.3575 million	35.1795 million	42.5	50.3	1.64	1.37	86.1	81.5
2050*	32.5070 million	32.8141 million	43.0	52.8	1.64	1.40	87.3	83.0
2060*	34.5627 million	30.1392 million	43.9	53.5	1.63	1.42	88.3	84.4
2070*	36.6351 million	27.1036 million	44.6	55.4	1.63	1.45	89.4	85.6
2080*	38.7008 million	24.0377 million	44.9	56.2	1.64	1.46	90.5	86.8
2090*	40.8767 million	21.4526 million	45.1	55.5	1.64	1.47	91.6	87.9
2100*	43.1437 million	19.3298 million	45.8	56.3	1.63	1.49	92.6	89.0

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

AUS − POL · 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 Poland, 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 Poland 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 · Poland. Or pick any two places with the boxes at the top of this page.

Other comparisons

Apparatus

Sources and method

Australia and Poland 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