Topics
Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024
Ghana and 
Malaysia, side by side
In 2026, half of the people in Ghana are older than 23. In Malaysia, half are older than 32.
UN estimates for mid-2023: Ghana 33,787,914 people · Malaysia 35,126,298
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
GHA × MYS · 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
- 35
- Aged 15 to 64
- 61
- Aged 65 and over
- 4
- Children, under 15
- 21
- Aged 15 to 64
- 71
- Aged 65 and over
- 8
GHA × MYS · families and lifetimes
Children, and how long lives last
At today's rates, a woman in Ghana would have about 3.3 children in her lifetime. In Malaysia, about 1.5. Around 2.1 children per woman keeps a population the same size over time, leaving migration aside. A baby born in Ghana this year can expect to live about 66 years. In Malaysia, about 77.
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.
GHA × MYS · 1950–2100 · how many
How big, and where they are heading
There are 36.4 million people in Malaysia and 35.7 million in Ghana: about as many people as Ghana.
Ghana's population is 7.0 times what it was in 1950; Malaysia's population is 6.0 times what it was in 1950.
Ghana's population is still growing in 2100; Malaysia's population is expected to peak in 2072. The UN expects Ghana to have more people than Malaysia from 2029. In 2100: 67.5 million in Ghana, 44.0 million in Malaysia (UN projection, medium).
Show the numbers
| Year | Ghana: people | Malaysia: people | Ghana: half older than | Malaysia: half older than | Ghana: children per woman | Malaysia: children per woman | Ghana: life expectancy | Malaysia: life expectancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 5.08066 million | 6.09828 million | 18.7 | 19.8 | 6.70 | 6.43 | 43.1 | 48.5 |
| 1960 | 6.96121 million | 7.95620 million | 17.7 | 17.5 | 6.89 | 6.41 | 46.9 | 57.2 |
| 1970 | 8.92581 million | 10.1788 million | 15.9 | 17.3 | 6.95 | 5.04 | 47.9 | 63.3 |
| 1980 | 11.9414 million | 12.9834 million | 16.6 | 19.7 | 6.47 | 4.04 | 51.1 | 68.1 |
| 1990 | 15.3947 million | 17.8332 million | 17.1 | 21.4 | 5.74 | 3.30 | 55.4 | 71.0 |
| 2000 | 19.6371 million | 22.9678 million | 18.3 | 23.5 | 4.83 | 2.94 | 58.1 | 72.7 |
| 2010 | 25.4750 million | 28.6558 million | 20.2 | 26.0 | 4.18 | 2.14 | 61.3 | 75.4 |
| 2023 | 33.7879 million | 35.1263 million | 21.9 | 31.1 | 3.40 | 1.55 | 65.5 | 76.7 |
| 2030* | 38.2221 million | 37.9617 million | 23.4 | 34.0 | 3.10 | 1.51 | 66.8 | 77.8 |
| 2040* | 44.5684 million | 41.5096 million | 25.8 | 37.8 | 2.78 | 1.51 | 68.5 | 79.5 |
| 2050* | 50.5530 million | 44.2898 million | 28.0 | 41.1 | 2.55 | 1.53 | 70.0 | 81.1 |
| 2060* | 55.7501 million | 45.8501 million | 30.0 | 44.3 | 2.35 | 1.53 | 71.5 | 82.7 |
| 2070* | 60.0889 million | 46.3730 million | 32.1 | 46.1 | 2.19 | 1.55 | 72.9 | 84.1 |
| 2080* | 63.6063 million | 46.1191 million | 34.3 | 46.9 | 2.08 | 1.56 | 74.3 | 85.5 |
| 2090* | 66.0999 million | 45.1730 million | 36.3 | 47.7 | 2.00 | 1.56 | 75.7 | 86.7 |
| 2100* | 67.5477 million | 44.0261 million | 38.2 | 48.4 | 1.93 | 1.56 | 77.1 | 87.9 |
* UN projection, medium variant. People at mid-year; ages and life expectancy in years.
GHA − MYS · 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 Ghana and which is Malaysia, 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; Ghana is drawn in solid blue squares and Malaysia 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
Ghana and Malaysia 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.
250 comparisons have a page of their own; any other two places can be compared from the boxes at the top.
Sources: UN WPP 2024 · flag-icons. Every source, its licence and how to cite it →
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries