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Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024
Italy and 
Spain, side by side
Line both places up by age in 2026. In Italy, half are older than 50; in Spain, half are older than 47.
UN estimates for mid-2023: Italy 59,499,453 people · Spain 47,911,580
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
ITA × 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.
- Children, under 15
- 11
- Aged 15 to 64
- 63
- Aged 65 and over
- 26
- Children, under 15
- 12
- Aged 15 to 64
- 66
- Aged 65 and over
- 22
ITA × ESP · families and lifetimes
Children, and how long lives last
At today's rates, a woman in Italy would have about 1.2 children in her lifetime. In Spain, about 1.2. A baby born in Italy this year can expect to live about 84 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.
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.
ITA × ESP · 1950–2100 · how many
How big, and where they are heading
There are 58.9 million people in Italy and 47.9 million in Spain: about 20% more people than Spain.
Set each against its own 1950 self and Italy's population is 1.3 times what it was in 1950, Spain's population is 1.7 times what it was in 1950.
Looking ahead: Italy's population peaked in 2014, and Spain's population peaked in 2023. In 2100: 35.4 million in Italy, 33.1 million in Spain (UN projection, medium).
Show the numbers
| Year | Italy: people | Spain: people | Italy: half older than | Spain: half older than | Italy: children per woman | Spain: children per woman | Italy: life expectancy | Spain: life expectancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 46.3917 million | 28.0770 million | 28.5 | 27.5 | 2.52 | 2.47 | 65.7 | 61.8 |
| 1960 | 49.5146 million | 30.4049 million | 31.5 | 29.4 | 2.38 | 2.81 | 69.2 | 69.2 |
| 1970 | 53.3902 million | 33.8127 million | 32.9 | 30.1 | 2.40 | 2.88 | 71.6 | 72.2 |
| 1980 | 56.4121 million | 37.5376 million | 34.0 | 30.7 | 1.65 | 2.21 | 74.0 | 75.5 |
| 1990 | 57.0314 million | 39.0850 million | 37.1 | 33.5 | 1.33 | 1.36 | 77.0 | 77.0 |
| 2000 | 57.2722 million | 41.0198 million | 40.3 | 37.3 | 1.25 | 1.21 | 79.6 | 79.4 |
| 2010 | 60.1642 million | 46.8405 million | 43.5 | 40.2 | 1.44 | 1.37 | 82.1 | 82.0 |
| 2023 | 59.4995 million | 47.9116 million | 48.5 | 45.9 | 1.20 | 1.21 | 83.7 | 83.7 |
| 2030* | 57.9461 million | 47.6105 million | 51.0 | 49.0 | 1.25 | 1.26 | 84.7 | 84.6 |
| 2040* | 55.2212 million | 46.5917 million | 53.0 | 52.0 | 1.30 | 1.31 | 86.0 | 85.9 |
| 2050* | 51.8911 million | 44.9286 million | 53.9 | 52.8 | 1.35 | 1.36 | 87.2 | 87.1 |
| 2060* | 47.5845 million | 42.2108 million | 54.0 | 53.0 | 1.39 | 1.39 | 88.4 | 88.4 |
| 2070* | 43.3533 million | 39.0358 million | 54.4 | 53.7 | 1.42 | 1.43 | 89.5 | 89.5 |
| 2080* | 40.2259 million | 36.5245 million | 54.0 | 52.6 | 1.43 | 1.46 | 90.6 | 90.7 |
| 2090* | 37.7486 million | 34.7742 million | 53.9 | 52.4 | 1.46 | 1.47 | 91.7 | 91.8 |
| 2100* | 35.3768 million | 33.1275 million | 54.4 | 53.2 | 1.48 | 1.48 | 92.8 | 92.9 |
* UN projection, medium variant. People at mid-year; ages and life expectancy in years.
ITA − 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 Italy 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; Italy 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: Italy · Spain. Or pick any two places with the boxes at the top of this page.
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Apparatus
Sources and method
Italy and Spain 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.
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