Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Ghana and Poland, side by side

Line both places up by age in 2026. In Ghana, half are older than 23; in Poland, half are older than 44.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Ghana 33,787,914 people · Poland 38,762,844

Ghana 35.7 million people Half are older than 23 4 in 100 are 65 or older

Poland 37.8 million people Half are older than 44 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

GHA × POL · 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.

Ghana

Children, under 15: 35
Aged 15 to 64: 61
Aged 65 and over: 4

Poland

Children, under 15: 14
Aged 15 to 64: 65
Aged 65 and over: 21

GHA × POL · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

Ghana is at about 3.3 children for each woman, at this year's rates; Poland is at about 1.3. Around 2.1 children per woman keeps a population the same size over time, leaving migration aside. Life expectancy at birth this year: about 66 years in Ghana, about 79 in Poland.

Children per woman, 2026

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

Ghana 3.3

Poland 1.3

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.

Ghana 66 years

Poland 79 years

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

GHA × POL · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

There are 37.8 million people in Poland and 35.7 million in Ghana: about as many people as Ghana.

Since 1950 the two have moved differently: Ghana's population is 7.0 times what it was in 1950, while Poland's population is 1.5 times what it was in 1950.

Looking ahead: Ghana's population is still growing in 2100, and Poland's population peaked in 2023. The UN expects Ghana to have more people than Poland from 2029. In 2100: 67.5 million in Ghana, 19.3 million in Poland (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Ghana: people	Poland: people	Ghana: half older than	Poland: half older than	Ghana: children per woman	Poland: children per woman	Ghana: life expectancy	Poland: life expectancy
1950	5.08066 million	24.7802 million	18.7	25.8	6.70	3.65	43.1	58.3
1960	6.96121 million	29.5760 million	17.7	26.6	6.89	3.00	46.9	67.1
1970	8.92581 million	32.5426 million	15.9	28.3	6.95	2.25	47.9	69.6
1980	11.9414 million	35.5765 million	16.6	29.5	6.47	2.28	51.1	70.5
1990	15.3947 million	38.0555 million	17.1	32.4	5.74	2.06	55.4	70.6
2000	19.6371 million	38.2581 million	18.3	35.3	4.83	1.37	58.1	73.7
2010	25.4750 million	38.0954 million	20.2	37.9	4.18	1.41	61.3	76.3
2023	33.7879 million	38.7628 million	21.9	42.3	3.40	1.30	65.5	78.6
2030*	38.2221 million	37.1985 million	23.4	46.0	3.10	1.33	66.8	79.8
2040*	44.5684 million	35.1795 million	25.8	50.3	2.78	1.37	68.5	81.5
2050*	50.5530 million	32.8141 million	28.0	52.8	2.55	1.40	70.0	83.0
2060*	55.7501 million	30.1392 million	30.0	53.5	2.35	1.42	71.5	84.4
2070*	60.0889 million	27.1036 million	32.1	55.4	2.19	1.45	72.9	85.6
2080*	63.6063 million	24.0377 million	34.3	56.2	2.08	1.46	74.3	86.8
2090*	66.0999 million	21.4526 million	36.3	55.5	2.00	1.47	75.7	87.9
2100*	67.5477 million	19.3298 million	38.2	56.3	1.93	1.49	77.1	89.0

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

GHA − POL · 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 Poland, 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 Poland 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: Ghana · Poland. Or pick any two places with the boxes at the top of this page.

Other comparisons

Apparatus

Sources and method

Ghana and Poland 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