Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Canada and South Korea, side by side

Canada in 2026: half the people are older than 42. South Korea: half are older than 47.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Canada 39,299,104 people · South Korea 51,748,739

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

South Korea 51.6 million people Half are older than 47 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

CAN × KOR · 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

South Korea

Children, under 15: 10
Aged 15 to 64: 69
Aged 65 and over: 21

CAN × KOR · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

At today's rates, a woman in Canada would have about 1.3 children in her lifetime. In South Korea, about 0.8. Babies born this year can expect about 83 years of life in Canada and about 85 in South Korea.

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

South Korea 0.8

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.

Canada 83 years

South Korea 85 years

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

CAN × KOR · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

There are 51.6 million people in South Korea and 40.5 million in Canada: about 30% more people than Canada.

Since 1950 the two have moved differently: Canada's population is 2.9 times what it was in 1950, while South Korea's population is 2.6 times what it was in 1950.

Canada's population is still growing in 2100; South Korea's population peaked in 2020. The UN expects Canada to have more people than South Korea from 2050. In 2100: 53.6 million in Canada, 21.8 million in South Korea (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Canada: people	South Korea: people	Canada: half older than	South Korea: half older than	Canada: children per woman	South Korea: children per woman	Canada: life expectancy	South Korea: life expectancy
1950	13.7417 million	19.7573 million	27.7	18.7	3.37	6.06	68.2	22.2
1960	17.8988 million	26.1154 million	26.5	19.3	3.82	5.99	71.0	53.8
1970	21.4400 million	32.5422 million	26.0	18.7	2.27	4.46	72.6	62.2
1980	24.5338 million	38.1411 million	29.1	21.9	1.66	2.73	75.1	64.8
1990	27.7894 million	44.0814 million	32.8	26.8	1.70	1.60	77.4	71.0
2000	30.8918 million	46.7667 million	36.8	31.7	1.51	1.47	79.2	76.2
2010	34.1969 million	48.7693 million	39.7	37.6	1.64	1.23	81.3	80.7
2023	39.2991 million	51.7487 million	41.3	45.5	1.35	0.72	82.6	84.3
2030*	41.6556 million	51.1886 million	42.7	49.5	1.32	0.81	83.7	85.1
2040*	43.9514 million	48.9487 million	44.8	54.3	1.36	0.93	85.0	86.2
2050*	45.6219 million	45.1431 million	46.1	57.7	1.39	1.03	86.2	87.3
2060*	47.1453 million	39.8572 million	46.9	61.1	1.42	1.10	87.4	88.5
2070*	48.8578 million	34.4530 million	47.5	62.5	1.45	1.16	88.5	89.6
2080*	50.4493 million	29.6715 million	47.8	64.0	1.47	1.21	89.6	90.7
2090*	51.9567 million	25.4491 million	47.8	62.2	1.48	1.26	90.7	91.9
2100*	53.6122 million	21.8488 million	47.9	60.9	1.49	1.30	91.8	93.1

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

CAN − KOR · 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 South Korea, 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 South Korea 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 · South Korea. Or pick any two places with the boxes at the top of this page.

Other comparisons

Apparatus

Sources and method

Canada and South Korea 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.

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.

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