Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Iraq and Spain, side by side

Iraq in 2026: half the people are older than 22. Spain: half are older than 47.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Iraq 45,074,049 people · Spain 47,911,580

Iraq 48.0 million people Half are older than 22 4 in 100 are 65 or older

Spain 47.9 million people Half are older than 47 22 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

IRQ × ESP · 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.

Iraq

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

Spain

Children, under 15: 12
Aged 15 to 64: 66
Aged 65 and over: 22

IRQ × ESP · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

If the birth rates of this year held for a whole lifetime, a woman in Iraq would have about 3.1 children and a woman in Spain about 1.2. Around 2.1 children per woman keeps a population the same size over time, leaving migration aside. A baby born in Iraq this year can expect to live about 73 years. In Spain, about 84.

Children per woman, 2026

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

Iraq 3.1

Spain 1.2

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.

Iraq 73 years

Spain 84 years

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

IRQ × ESP · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

Iraq is the larger of the two, with about as many people as Spain: 48.0 million to 47.9 million.

Set each against its own 1950 self and Iraq's population is 8.5 times what it was in 1950, Spain's population is 1.7 times what it was in 1950.

Iraq's population is still growing in 2100. Meanwhile Spain's population peaked in 2023. In 2100: 101 million in Iraq, 33.1 million in Spain (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Iraq: people	Spain: people	Iraq: half older than	Spain: half older than	Iraq: children per woman	Spain: children per woman	Iraq: life expectancy	Spain: life expectancy
1950	5.65335 million	28.0770 million	21.5	27.5	6.20	2.47	37.4	61.8
1960	7.02205 million	30.4049 million	20.4	29.4	5.30	2.81	51.5	69.2
1970	9.73561 million	33.8127 million	18.0	30.1	7.07	2.88	60.5	72.2
1980	13.5920 million	37.5376 million	16.4	30.7	6.59	2.21	60.9	75.5
1990	17.5812 million	39.0850 million	17.0	33.5	5.93	1.36	57.6	77.0
2000	24.4241 million	41.0198 million	17.9	37.3	4.92	1.21	64.9	79.4
2010	31.0454 million	46.8405 million	18.9	40.2	4.46	1.37	68.1	82.0
2023	45.0740 million	47.9116 million	21.3	45.9	3.25	1.21	72.3	83.7
2030*	51.9372 million	47.6105 million	23.1	49.0	2.97	1.26	73.1	84.6
2040*	62.2232 million	46.5917 million	26.2	52.0	2.66	1.31	74.1	85.9
2050*	71.9287 million	44.9286 million	28.8	52.8	2.45	1.36	75.3	87.1
2060*	80.5202 million	42.2108 million	31.2	53.0	2.27	1.39	76.5	88.4
2070*	87.9959 million	39.0358 million	33.7	53.7	2.15	1.43	77.8	89.5
2080*	93.7619 million	36.5245 million	36.2	52.6	2.05	1.46	79.0	90.7
2090*	98.0040 million	34.7742 million	38.3	52.4	1.97	1.47	80.3	91.8
2100*	100.649 million	33.1275 million	40.1	53.2	1.92	1.48	81.6	92.9

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

IRQ − ESP · 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 Iraq and which is Spain, 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; Iraq is drawn in solid blue squares and Spain 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: Iraq · Spain. 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