Topics
Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024
Ethiopia and 
Nigeria, side by side
In 2026, half of the people in Ethiopia are older than 20. In Nigeria, half are older than 19.
UN estimates for mid-2023: Ethiopia 128,691,692 people · Nigeria 227,882,945
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.
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.
men women projected
ETH × NGA · 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.
- Children, under 15
- 39
- Aged 15 to 64
- 58
- Aged 65 and over
- 3
- Children, under 15
- 40
- Aged 15 to 64
- 57
- Aged 65 and over
- 3
ETH × NGA · families and lifetimes
Children, and how long lives last
Ethiopia is at about 3.7 children for each woman, at this year's rates; Nigeria is at about 4.2. A baby born in Ethiopia this year can expect to live about 68 years. In Nigeria, about 55.
Children per woman, 2026
Each figure is one child: how many children a woman would have in her lifetime at that year’s rates.
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.
Hatched marks are UN projections (medium variant), not measurements.
ETH × NGA · 1950–2100 · how many
How big, and where they are heading
There are 242 million people in Nigeria and 139 million in Ethiopia: about 70% more people than Ethiopia.
Set each against its own 1950 self and Ethiopia's population is 7.9 times what it was in 1950, Nigeria's population is 6.5 times what it was in 1950.
Ethiopia's population is still growing in 2100. Meanwhile Nigeria's population is still growing in 2100. In 2100: 367 million in Ethiopia, 477 million in Nigeria (UN projection, medium).
Show the numbers
| Year | Ethiopia: people | Nigeria: people | Ethiopia: half older than | Nigeria: half older than | Ethiopia: children per woman | Nigeria: children per woman | Ethiopia: life expectancy | Nigeria: life expectancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 17.6704 million | 37.2830 million | 18.0 | 19.1 | 6.43 | 6.42 | 35.5 | 35.5 |
| 1960 | 21.3767 million | 45.0538 million | 18.5 | 19.3 | 6.51 | 6.36 | 39.6 | 37.2 |
| 1970 | 27.8291 million | 55.8938 million | 18.0 | 18.9 | 6.78 | 6.47 | 42.1 | 40.0 |
| 1980 | 34.4285 million | 73.7646 million | 16.7 | 17.7 | 7.29 | 6.85 | 42.8 | 46.0 |
| 1990 | 47.6097 million | 97.1209 million | 16.8 | 17.2 | 7.20 | 6.46 | 45.1 | 45.7 |
| 2000 | 67.4115 million | 126.382 million | 16.1 | 17.8 | 6.65 | 6.12 | 50.9 | 47.1 |
| 2010 | 90.5385 million | 166.643 million | 16.8 | 17.7 | 5.28 | 5.95 | 59.7 | 51.3 |
| 2023 | 128.692 million | 227.883 million | 19.7 | 18.8 | 3.99 | 4.48 | 67.3 | 54.5 |
| 2030* | 152.855 million | 262.381 million | 21.2 | 20.3 | 3.43 | 3.82 | 69.2 | 55.5 |
| 2040* | 188.451 million | 312.710 million | 23.1 | 22.7 | 2.90 | 3.10 | 71.4 | 57.1 |
| 2050* | 225.022 million | 359.186 million | 25.6 | 24.9 | 2.55 | 2.66 | 73.3 | 58.5 |
| 2060* | 260.708 million | 399.785 million | 28.2 | 27.3 | 2.32 | 2.39 | 75.1 | 59.9 |
| 2070* | 293.791 million | 433.486 million | 30.6 | 29.8 | 2.15 | 2.20 | 76.9 | 61.2 |
| 2080* | 323.239 million | 457.922 million | 33.1 | 32.0 | 2.03 | 2.07 | 78.5 | 62.5 |
| 2090* | 347.651 million | 471.886 million | 35.4 | 33.8 | 1.94 | 1.98 | 80.1 | 63.6 |
| 2100* | 367.290 million | 476.748 million | 37.6 | 35.3 | 1.88 | 1.91 | 81.6 | 64.7 |
* UN projection, medium variant. People at mid-year; ages and life expectancy in years.
ETH − NGA · 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 Ethiopia and which is Nigeria, 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; Ethiopia is drawn in solid blue squares and Nigeria 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: Ethiopia · Nigeria. Or pick any two places with the boxes at the top of this page.
Other comparisons
- Bangladesh and Ethiopia
- Brazil and Ethiopia
- Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia
- Egypt and Ethiopia
- Ethiopia and Kenya
- Ethiopia and Mexico
- Ethiopia and Russia
- China and Nigeria
- Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria
- Germany and Nigeria
- Ghana and Nigeria
- India and Nigeria
- Indonesia and Nigeria
- Japan and Nigeria
- Nigeria and South Africa
- Nigeria and South Korea
- Nigeria and United States
- Ethiopia and Eastern Africa
- Nigeria and Western Africa
Apparatus
Sources and method
Ethiopia and Nigeria 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.
How the median age and the “100 people” pictures are worked out, and why the pictures of every country leave the regions out: how the figures here are put together.
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