Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Democratic Republic of the Congo and Japan, side by side

Line both places up by age in 2026. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, half are older than 17; in Japan, half are older than 51.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Democratic Republic of the Congo 105,789,732 people · Japan 124,370,946

Democratic Republic of the Congo 116 million people Half are older than 17 3 in 100 are 65 or older

Japan 122 million people Half are older than 51 30 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

COD × JPN · 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.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

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

Japan

Children, under 15: 11
Aged 15 to 64: 59
Aged 65 and over: 30

COD × JPN · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

If the birth rates of this year held for a whole lifetime, a woman in the Democratic Republic of the Congo would have about 5.8 children and a woman in Japan about 1.2. Around 2.1 children per woman keeps a population the same size over time, leaving migration aside. Babies born this year can expect about 62 years of life in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and about 85 in Japan.

Children per woman, 2026

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

Democratic Republic of the Congo 5.8

Japan 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.

Democratic Republic of the Congo 62 years

Japan 85 years

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

COD × JPN · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

Japan is the larger of the two, with about as many people as the Democratic Republic of the Congo: 122 million to 116 million.

Set each against its own 1950 self and the Democratic Republic of the Congo's population is 9.5 times what it was in 1950, Japan's population is 1.4 times what it was in 1950.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo's population is still growing in 2100; Japan's population peaked in 2009. The UN expects the Democratic Republic of the Congo to have more people than Japan from 2028. In 2100: 431 million in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 76.8 million in Japan (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Democratic Republic of the Congo: people	Japan: people	Democratic Republic of the Congo: half older than	Japan: half older than	Democratic Republic of the Congo: children per woman	Japan: children per woman	Democratic Republic of the Congo: life expectancy	Japan: life expectancy
1950	12.2943 million	86.4433 million	18.1	22.3	5.97	3.62	38.2	59.3
1960	15.2648 million	96.3997 million	18.3	25.7	6.11	1.98	40.8	67.7
1970	20.1374 million	106.712 million	18.3	29.3	6.33	2.04	43.3	72.0
1980	26.7111 million	118.359 million	17.8	32.7	6.50	1.74	45.5	76.1
1990	36.6841 million	123.400 million	17.7	37.9	6.65	1.51	48.5	79.0
2000	50.5074 million	127.028 million	17.1	41.8	6.70	1.35	51.9	81.2
2010	68.5630 million	128.185 million	16.8	45.2	6.59	1.36	56.4	82.9
2023	105.790 million	124.371 million	16.8	50.0	6.05	1.21	61.9	84.7
2030*	131.532 million	119.584 million	17.2	52.5	5.42	1.26	63.0	85.7
2040*	172.596 million	112.158 million	18.8	54.1	4.38	1.31	64.5	87.1
2050*	218.246 million	105.123 million	21.0	53.8	3.66	1.35	66.0	88.4
2060*	266.679 million	98.1032 million	23.3	54.1	3.14	1.39	67.2	89.7
2070*	314.382 million	90.6118 million	25.6	54.6	2.77	1.42	68.4	90.9
2080*	358.921 million	84.7300 million	28.1	53.7	2.50	1.44	69.6	92.1
2090*	398.481 million	80.6344 million	30.6	53.4	2.30	1.46	70.7	93.2
2100*	430.709 million	76.8460 million	32.8	54.0	2.16	1.47	71.9	94.4

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

COD − JPN · 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 the Democratic Republic of the Congo and which is Japan, 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; the Democratic Republic of the Congo is drawn in solid blue squares and Japan in open orange squares, so you can see whether each is ahead of the crowd, behind it or in the middle.

Apparatus

Sources and method

Both sides of this comparison come from the UN Population Division's World Population Prospects 2024 — the same release, the same tables, counted to 2023 and projected beyond it on the medium variant. That shared origin is what a comparison rests on.

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 →