Topics
Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024
Latin America and the Caribbean and 
Northern America, side by side
Line both places up by age in 2026. In Latin America and the Caribbean, half are older than 33; in Northern America, half are older than 40.
UN estimates for mid-2023: Latin America and the Caribbean 658,891,516 people · Northern America 382,902,742
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
AGG × AGG · 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
- 22
- Aged 15 to 64
- 68
- Aged 65 and over
- 10
- Children, under 15
- 17
- Aged 15 to 64
- 64
- Aged 65 and over
- 19
AGG × AGG · families and lifetimes
Children, and how long lives last
Latin America and the Caribbean is at about 1.8 children for each woman, at this year's rates; Northern America is at about 1.6. A baby born in Latin America and the Caribbean this year can expect to live about 76 years. In Northern America, about 80.
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.
AGG × AGG · 1950–2100 · how many
How big, and where they are heading
There are 672 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean and 390 million in Northern America: about 70% more people than Northern America.
Set each against its own 1950 self and Latin America and the Caribbean's population is 4.0 times what it was in 1950, Northern America's population is 2.3 times what it was in 1950.
Looking ahead: Latin America and the Caribbean's population is expected to peak in 2053, and Northern America's population is still growing in 2100. In 2100: 613 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, 475 million in Northern America (UN projection, medium).
Show the numbers
| Year | Latin America and the Caribbean: people | Northern America: people | Latin America and the Caribbean: half older than | Northern America: half older than | Latin America and the Caribbean: children per woman | Northern America: children per woman | Latin America and the Caribbean: life expectancy | Northern America: life expectancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 167.782 million | 168.009 million | 19.3 | 29.8 | 5.79 | 3.10 | 48.7 | 68.1 |
| 1960 | 219.268 million | 198.253 million | 18.5 | 29.0 | 5.87 | 3.74 | 54.7 | 69.9 |
| 1970 | 285.741 million | 229.340 million | 18.3 | 27.6 | 5.17 | 2.49 | 58.5 | 70.9 |
| 1980 | 360.493 million | 254.502 million | 19.6 | 30.0 | 4.14 | 1.84 | 63.3 | 73.8 |
| 1990 | 441.885 million | 281.282 million | 21.7 | 32.9 | 3.24 | 2.03 | 67.4 | 75.6 |
| 2000 | 521.323 million | 312.500 million | 24.2 | 35.4 | 2.61 | 1.98 | 70.8 | 77.0 |
| 2010 | 588.908 million | 345.386 million | 27.4 | 37.2 | 2.18 | 1.89 | 73.2 | 78.9 |
| 2023 | 658.892 million | 382.903 million | 31.9 | 39.3 | 1.81 | 1.60 | 75.7 | 79.6 |
| 2030* | 687.743 million | 397.430 million | 34.6 | 40.8 | 1.74 | 1.60 | 76.9 | 80.7 |
| 2040* | 717.030 million | 414.279 million | 38.2 | 42.2 | 1.71 | 1.61 | 78.5 | 82.2 |
| 2050* | 730.057 million | 426.580 million | 41.5 | 43.2 | 1.69 | 1.62 | 80.1 | 83.6 |
| 2060* | 727.196 million | 436.166 million | 44.4 | 44.4 | 1.67 | 1.62 | 81.5 | 84.9 |
| 2070* | 710.988 million | 447.170 million | 46.6 | 45.0 | 1.66 | 1.62 | 82.8 | 86.1 |
| 2080* | 684.288 million | 457.616 million | 48.1 | 45.4 | 1.66 | 1.63 | 84.1 | 87.2 |
| 2090* | 650.403 million | 466.495 million | 49.2 | 46.1 | 1.65 | 1.63 | 85.3 | 88.4 |
| 2100* | 613.447 million | 474.966 million | 50.1 | 46.5 | 1.65 | 1.63 | 86.4 | 89.5 |
* UN projection, medium variant. People at mid-year; ages and life expectancy in years.
AGG − AGG · 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 Latin America and the Caribbean and which is Northern America, 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; Latin America and the Caribbean is drawn in solid blue squares and Northern America 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: Latin America and the Caribbean · Northern America. Or pick any two places with the boxes at the top of this page.
Apparatus
Sources and method
Latin America and the Caribbean and Northern America 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