Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Iran and Sudan, side by side

Iran in 2026: half the people are older than 36. Sudan: half are older than 20.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Iran 90,608,707 people · Sudan 50,042,790

Iran 93.2 million people Half are older than 36 9 in 100 are 65 or older

Sudan 53.3 million people Half are older than 20 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

IRN × SDN · 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.

Iran

Children, under 15: 22
Aged 15 to 64: 69
Aged 65 and over: 9

Sudan

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

IRN × SDN · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

If the birth rates of this year held for a whole lifetime, a woman in Iran would have about 1.7 children and a woman in Sudan about 4.1. Around 2.1 children per woman keeps a population the same size over time, leaving migration aside. A baby born in Iran this year can expect to live about 78 years. In Sudan, about 67.

Children per woman, 2026

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

Iran 1.7

Sudan 4.1

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.

Iran 78 years

Sudan 67 years

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

IRN × SDN · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

Iran is the larger of the two, with about 70% more people than Sudan: 93.2 million to 53.3 million.

Set each against its own 1950 self and Iran's population is 5.6 times what it was in 1950, Sudan's population is 8.6 times what it was in 1950.

Looking ahead: Iran's population is expected to peak in 2053, and Sudan's population is still growing in 2100. The UN expects Sudan to have more people than Iran from 2062. In 2100: 80.0 million in Iran, 137 million in Sudan (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Iran: people	Sudan: people	Iran: half older than	Sudan: half older than	Iran: children per woman	Sudan: children per woman	Iran: life expectancy	Sudan: life expectancy
1950	16.5105 million	6.18991 million	21.7	17.1	6.97	6.66	38.2	45.8
1960	21.4704 million	8.36449 million	19.0	16.6	7.52	6.66	43.3	49.6
1970	29.1451 million	11.6958 million	17.5	16.1	6.80	6.99	50.2	52.3
1980	39.8423 million	17.0589 million	18.2	16.4	6.63	6.59	58.4	54.1
1990	58.3801 million	22.0215 million	18.1	16.8	4.93	6.07	64.1	55.5
2000	66.4187 million	27.8167 million	21.2	16.8	2.00	5.60	70.2	59.0
2010	77.4208 million	35.4144 million	27.1	17.3	1.75	5.14	74.4	63.0
2023	90.6087 million	50.0428 million	33.9	19.3	1.70	4.32	77.7	66.3
2030*	95.4867 million	58.5716 million	37.7	20.5	1.63	3.88	79.0	67.6
2040*	99.5243 million	71.7306 million	41.8	22.4	1.63	3.36	81.0	69.3
2050*	101.862 million	85.2064 million	44.5	25.0	1.63	3.00	82.8	70.9
2060*	100.971 million	98.6274 million	47.5	27.5	1.63	2.74	84.3	72.3
2070*	96.7073 million	110.783 million	50.7	29.9	1.64	2.53	85.8	73.8
2080*	90.8439 million	121.318 million	51.3	32.1	1.63	2.38	87.0	75.2
2090*	85.2486 million	130.242 million	51.6	34.3	1.64	2.25	88.2	76.7
2100*	80.0453 million	136.891 million	52.9	36.5	1.64	2.15	89.3	78.1

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

IRN − SDN · 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 Iran and which is Sudan, 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; Iran is drawn in solid blue squares and Sudan 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: Iran · Sudan. Or pick any two places with the boxes at the top of this page.

Other comparisons

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.

The working behind the median age, the rounding in the “100 people” pictures and the reason the regions are kept out of the all-country views are all set out in 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 →

Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries