Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Brazil and Democratic Republic of the Congo, side by side

Brazil in 2026: half the people are older than 36. The Democratic Republic of the Congo: half are older than 17.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Brazil 211,140,729 people · Democratic Republic of the Congo 105,789,732

Brazil 214 million people Half are older than 36 12 in 100 are 65 or older

Democratic Republic of the Congo 116 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

BRA × COD · 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.

Brazil

Children, under 15: 19
Aged 15 to 64: 69
Aged 65 and over: 12

Democratic Republic of the Congo

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

BRA × COD · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

At today's rates, a woman in Brazil would have about 1.6 children in her lifetime. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, about 5.8. Around 2.1 children per woman keeps a population the same size over time, leaving migration aside. Life expectancy at birth this year: about 76 years in Brazil, about 62 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Children per woman, 2026

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

Brazil 1.6

Democratic Republic of the Congo 5.8

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.

Brazil 76 years

Democratic Republic of the Congo 62 years

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

BRA × COD · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

Brazil has about 80% more people than the Democratic Republic of the Congo: 214 million against 116 million.

Brazil's population is 4.0 times what it was in 1950; the Democratic Republic of the Congo's population is 9.5 times what it was in 1950.

Brazil's population is expected to peak in 2042. Meanwhile the Democratic Republic of the Congo's population is still growing in 2100. The UN expects the Democratic Republic of the Congo to have more people than Brazil from 2050. In 2100: 163 million in Brazil, 431 million in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Brazil: people	Democratic Republic of the Congo: people	Brazil: half older than	Democratic Republic of the Congo: half older than	Brazil: children per woman	Democratic Republic of the Congo: children per woman	Brazil: life expectancy	Democratic Republic of the Congo: life expectancy
1950	53.4085 million	12.2943 million	18.5	18.1	6.12	5.97	48.5	38.2
1960	72.3881 million	15.2648 million	17.9	18.3	6.05	6.11	53.2	40.8
1970	95.3756 million	20.1374 million	18.3	18.3	4.93	6.33	57.3	43.3
1980	121.207 million	26.7111 million	20.2	17.8	4.04	6.50	61.8	45.5
1990	149.143 million	36.6841 million	22.4	17.7	2.90	6.65	65.9	48.5
2000	174.018 million	50.5074 million	25.2	17.1	2.25	6.70	69.6	51.9
2010	193.702 million	68.5630 million	29.2	16.8	1.79	6.59	73.8	56.4
2023	211.141 million	105.790 million	34.9	16.8	1.62	6.05	75.8	61.9
2030*	216.074 million	131.532 million	37.9	17.2	1.58	5.42	77.1	63.0
2040*	219.237 million	172.596 million	41.8	18.8	1.57	4.38	78.7	64.5
2050*	217.489 million	218.246 million	44.9	21.0	1.56	3.66	80.3	66.0
2060*	211.039 million	266.679 million	47.3	23.3	1.56	3.14	81.8	67.2
2070*	200.893 million	314.382 million	49.3	25.6	1.57	2.77	83.2	68.4
2080*	188.599 million	358.921 million	50.3	28.1	1.57	2.50	84.5	69.6
2090*	175.781 million	398.481 million	51.0	30.6	1.58	2.30	85.7	70.7
2100*	163.364 million	430.709 million	51.7	32.8	1.58	2.16	86.8	71.9

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

BRA − COD · 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 Brazil and which is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 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; Brazil is drawn in solid blue squares and the Democratic Republic of the Congo 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: Brazil · Democratic Republic of the Congo. Or pick any two places with the boxes at the top of this page.

Other comparisons

Apparatus

Sources and method

Every figure for Brazil and Democratic Republic of the Congo is the United Nations Population Division's, from World Population Prospects 2024: counted to 2023, and the medium projection for each year after that. Both places are taken from the same release and the same tables, which is what makes them comparable at all.

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.

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