Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Germany and Nigeria, side by side

Line both places up by age in 2026. In Germany, half are older than 47; in Nigeria, half are older than 19.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Germany 84,548,231 people · Nigeria 227,882,945

Germany 83.6 million people Half are older than 47 24 in 100 are 65 or older

Nigeria 242 million people Half are older than 19 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

DEU × 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.

Germany

Children, under 15: 14
Aged 15 to 64: 62
Aged 65 and over: 24

Nigeria

Children, under 15: 40
Aged 15 to 64: 57
Aged 65 and over: 3

DEU × NGA · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

Germany is at about 1.5 children for each woman, at this year's rates; Nigeria is at about 4.2. Around 2.1 children per woman keeps a population the same size over time, leaving migration aside. A baby born in Germany this year can expect to live about 82 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.

Germany 1.5

Nigeria 4.2

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.

Germany 82 years

Nigeria 55 years

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

DEU × NGA · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

There are 242 million people in Nigeria and 83.6 million in Germany: about three times as many people as Germany.

Since 1950 the two have moved differently: Germany's population is 1.2 times what it was in 1950, while Nigeria's population is 6.5 times what it was in 1950.

Germany's population peaked in 2024. Meanwhile Nigeria's population is still growing in 2100. In 2100: 70.9 million in Germany, 477 million in Nigeria (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Germany: people	Nigeria: people	Germany: half older than	Nigeria: half older than	Germany: children per woman	Nigeria: children per woman	Germany: life expectancy	Nigeria: life expectancy
1950	69.8478 million	37.2830 million	33.9	19.1	2.19	6.42	66.8	35.5
1960	72.8116 million	45.0538 million	34.7	19.3	2.38	6.36	69.3	37.2
1970	78.2051 million	55.8938 million	34.2	18.9	2.02	6.47	70.7	40.0
1980	78.3154 million	73.7646 million	36.7	17.7	1.56	6.85	73.1	46.0
1990	79.7080 million	97.1209 million	37.6	17.2	1.46	6.46	75.3	45.7
2000	81.7973 million	126.382 million	40.0	17.8	1.39	6.12	78.1	47.1
2010	80.8309 million	166.643 million	44.3	17.7	1.40	5.95	80.1	51.3
2023	84.5482 million	227.883 million	46.1	18.8	1.44	4.48	81.4	54.5
2030*	82.7810 million	262.381 million	47.3	20.3	1.48	3.82	82.5	55.5
2040*	80.5517 million	312.710 million	49.1	22.7	1.51	3.10	83.9	57.1
2050*	78.2946 million	359.186 million	48.9	24.9	1.54	2.66	85.2	58.5
2060*	75.6046 million	399.785 million	47.6	27.3	1.56	2.39	86.4	59.9
2070*	73.6158 million	433.486 million	48.2	29.8	1.56	2.20	87.5	61.2
2080*	72.1125 million	457.922 million	48.1	32.0	1.58	2.07	88.7	62.5
2090*	71.2004 million	471.886 million	47.7	33.8	1.59	1.98	89.7	63.6
2100*	70.8999 million	476.748 million	48.4	35.3	1.60	1.91	90.8	64.7

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

DEU − 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 Germany 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; Germany 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.

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Keep exploring

Each place on its own: Germany · Nigeria. Or pick any two places with the boxes at the top of this page.

Other comparisons

Apparatus

Sources and method

Germany 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.

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.

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