Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Brazil and Ethiopia, side by side

Line both places up by age in 2026. In Brazil, half are older than 36; in Ethiopia, half are older than 20.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Brazil 211,140,729 people · Ethiopia 128,691,692

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

Ethiopia 139 million people Half are older than 20 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 × ETH · 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

Ethiopia

Children, under 15: 39
Aged 15 to 64: 58
Aged 65 and over: 3

BRA × ETH · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

If the birth rates of this year held for a whole lifetime, a woman in Brazil would have about 1.6 children and a woman in Ethiopia about 3.7. 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 68 in Ethiopia.

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

Ethiopia 3.7

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

Ethiopia 68 years

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

BRA × ETH · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

There are 214 million people in Brazil and 139 million in Ethiopia: about 50% more people than Ethiopia.

Set each against its own 1950 self and Brazil's population is 4.0 times what it was in 1950, Ethiopia's population is 7.9 times what it was in 1950.

Looking ahead: Brazil's population is expected to peak in 2042, and Ethiopia's population is still growing in 2100. The UN expects Ethiopia to have more people than Brazil from 2049. In 2100: 163 million in Brazil, 367 million in Ethiopia (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Brazil: people	Ethiopia: people	Brazil: half older than	Ethiopia: half older than	Brazil: children per woman	Ethiopia: children per woman	Brazil: life expectancy	Ethiopia: life expectancy
1950	53.4085 million	17.6704 million	18.5	18.0	6.12	6.43	48.5	35.5
1960	72.3881 million	21.3767 million	17.9	18.5	6.05	6.51	53.2	39.6
1970	95.3756 million	27.8291 million	18.3	18.0	4.93	6.78	57.3	42.1
1980	121.207 million	34.4285 million	20.2	16.7	4.04	7.29	61.8	42.8
1990	149.143 million	47.6097 million	22.4	16.8	2.90	7.20	65.9	45.1
2000	174.018 million	67.4115 million	25.2	16.1	2.25	6.65	69.6	50.9
2010	193.702 million	90.5385 million	29.2	16.8	1.79	5.28	73.8	59.7
2023	211.141 million	128.692 million	34.9	19.7	1.62	3.99	75.8	67.3
2030*	216.074 million	152.855 million	37.9	21.2	1.58	3.43	77.1	69.2
2040*	219.237 million	188.451 million	41.8	23.1	1.57	2.90	78.7	71.4
2050*	217.489 million	225.022 million	44.9	25.6	1.56	2.55	80.3	73.3
2060*	211.039 million	260.708 million	47.3	28.2	1.56	2.32	81.8	75.1
2070*	200.893 million	293.791 million	49.3	30.6	1.57	2.15	83.2	76.9
2080*	188.599 million	323.239 million	50.3	33.1	1.57	2.03	84.5	78.5
2090*	175.781 million	347.651 million	51.0	35.4	1.58	1.94	85.7	80.1
2100*	163.364 million	367.290 million	51.7	37.6	1.58	1.88	86.8	81.6

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

BRA − ETH · 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 Ethiopia, 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 Ethiopia 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 · Ethiopia. Or pick any two places with the boxes at the top of this page.

Other comparisons

Apparatus

Sources and method

Brazil and Ethiopia 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.

For how the median age is derived, why “100 people” can read a person high or low, and what the all-country pictures do and do not count, see 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