Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Japan and Philippines, side by side

In 2026, half of the people in Japan are older than 51. In the Philippines, half are older than 28.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Japan 124,370,946 people · Philippines 114,891,199

Japan 122 million people Half are older than 51 30 in 100 are 65 or older

Philippines 118 million people Half are older than 28 6 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

JPN × PHL · 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.

Japan

Children, under 15: 11
Aged 15 to 64: 59
Aged 65 and over: 30

Philippines

Children, under 15: 26
Aged 15 to 64: 68
Aged 65 and over: 6

JPN × PHL · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

If the birth rates of this year held for a whole lifetime, a woman in Japan would have about 1.2 children and a woman in the Philippines about 1.9. Babies born this year can expect about 85 years of life in Japan and about 70 in the Philippines.

Children per woman, 2026

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

Japan 1.2

Philippines 1.9

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.

Japan 85 years

Philippines 70 years

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

JPN × PHL · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

Japan is the larger of the two, with about as many people as the Philippines: 122 million to 118 million.

Since 1950 the two have moved differently: Japan's population is 1.4 times what it was in 1950, while the Philippines' population is 6.2 times what it was in 1950.

Looking ahead: Japan's population peaked in 2009, and the Philippines' population is expected to peak in 2057. The UN expects the Philippines to have more people than Japan from 2029. In 2100: 76.8 million in Japan, 114 million in the Philippines (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Japan: people	Philippines: people	Japan: half older than	Philippines: half older than	Japan: children per woman	Philippines: children per woman	Japan: life expectancy	Philippines: life expectancy
1950	86.4433 million	18.8495 million	22.3	16.5	3.62	7.13	59.3	53.6
1960	96.3997 million	27.8919 million	25.7	15.7	1.98	7.00	67.7	59.2
1970	106.712 million	37.6222 million	29.3	15.6	2.04	6.22	72.0	60.8
1980	118.359 million	48.0437 million	32.7	17.2	1.74	5.11	76.1	61.9
1990	123.400 million	62.8547 million	37.9	18.8	1.51	4.32	79.0	64.4
2000	127.028 million	79.6254 million	41.8	20.0	1.35	3.75	81.2	67.8
2010	128.185 million	96.3371 million	45.2	21.9	1.36	3.31	82.9	68.9
2023	124.371 million	114.891 million	50.0	26.3	1.21	1.92	84.7	69.8
2030*	119.584 million	121.409 million	52.5	29.2	1.26	1.82	85.7	70.7
2040*	112.158 million	129.547 million	54.1	33.0	1.31	1.77	87.1	71.9
2050*	105.123 million	134.373 million	53.8	36.9	1.35	1.74	88.4	73.2
2060*	98.1032 million	135.032 million	54.1	40.7	1.39	1.71	89.7	74.6
2070*	90.6118 million	133.032 million	54.6	42.5	1.42	1.70	90.9	76.0
2080*	84.7300 million	128.572 million	53.7	44.2	1.44	1.69	92.1	77.4
2090*	80.6344 million	121.786 million	53.4	46.0	1.46	1.69	93.2	78.9
2100*	76.8460 million	114.222 million	54.0	47.1	1.47	1.67	94.4	80.3

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

JPN − PHL · 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 Japan and which is the Philippines, 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; Japan is drawn in solid blue squares and the Philippines 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: Japan · Philippines. 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.

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.

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