Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Canada and Italy, side by side

Line both places up by age in 2026. In Canada, half are older than 42; in Italy, half are older than 50.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Canada 39,299,104 people · Italy 59,499,453

Canada 40.5 million people Half are older than 42 21 in 100 are 65 or older

Italy 58.9 million people Half are older than 50 26 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

CAN × ITA · 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.

Canada

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

Italy

Children, under 15: 11
Aged 15 to 64: 63
Aged 65 and over: 26

CAN × ITA · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

If the birth rates of this year held for a whole lifetime, a woman in Canada would have about 1.3 children and a woman in Italy about 1.2. Babies born this year can expect about 83 years of life in Canada and about 84 in Italy.

Children per woman, 2026

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

Canada 1.3

Italy 1.2

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.

Canada 83 years

Italy 84 years

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

CAN × ITA · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

There are 58.9 million people in Italy and 40.5 million in Canada: about 50% more people than Canada.

Set each against its own 1950 self and Canada's population is 2.9 times what it was in 1950, Italy's population is 1.3 times what it was in 1950.

Looking ahead: Canada's population is still growing in 2100, and Italy's population peaked in 2014. The UN expects Canada to have more people than Italy from 2061. In 2100: 53.6 million in Canada, 35.4 million in Italy (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Canada: people	Italy: people	Canada: half older than	Italy: half older than	Canada: children per woman	Italy: children per woman	Canada: life expectancy	Italy: life expectancy
1950	13.7417 million	46.3917 million	27.7	28.5	3.37	2.52	68.2	65.7
1960	17.8988 million	49.5146 million	26.5	31.5	3.82	2.38	71.0	69.2
1970	21.4400 million	53.3902 million	26.0	32.9	2.27	2.40	72.6	71.6
1980	24.5338 million	56.4121 million	29.1	34.0	1.66	1.65	75.1	74.0
1990	27.7894 million	57.0314 million	32.8	37.1	1.70	1.33	77.4	77.0
2000	30.8918 million	57.2722 million	36.8	40.3	1.51	1.25	79.2	79.6
2010	34.1969 million	60.1642 million	39.7	43.5	1.64	1.44	81.3	82.1
2023	39.2991 million	59.4995 million	41.3	48.5	1.35	1.20	82.6	83.7
2030*	41.6556 million	57.9461 million	42.7	51.0	1.32	1.25	83.7	84.7
2040*	43.9514 million	55.2212 million	44.8	53.0	1.36	1.30	85.0	86.0
2050*	45.6219 million	51.8911 million	46.1	53.9	1.39	1.35	86.2	87.2
2060*	47.1453 million	47.5845 million	46.9	54.0	1.42	1.39	87.4	88.4
2070*	48.8578 million	43.3533 million	47.5	54.4	1.45	1.42	88.5	89.5
2080*	50.4493 million	40.2259 million	47.8	54.0	1.47	1.43	89.6	90.6
2090*	51.9567 million	37.7486 million	47.8	53.9	1.48	1.46	90.7	91.7
2100*	53.6122 million	35.3768 million	47.9	54.4	1.49	1.48	91.8	92.8

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

CAN − ITA · 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 Canada and which is Italy, 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; Canada is drawn in solid blue squares and Italy 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: Canada · Italy. Or pick any two places with the boxes at the top of this page.

Other comparisons

Apparatus

Sources and method

Canada and Italy 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