Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Madagascar and Saudi Arabia, side by side

In 2026, half of the people in Madagascar are older than 20. In Saudi Arabia, half are older than 31.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Madagascar 31,195,932 people · Saudi Arabia 33,264,292

Madagascar 33.5 million people Half are older than 20 3 in 100 are 65 or older

Saudi Arabia 35.2 million people Half are older than 31 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

MDG × SAU · 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.

Madagascar

Children, under 15: 39
Aged 15 to 64: 58
Aged 65 and over: 3

Saudi Arabia

Children, under 15: 24
Aged 15 to 64: 73
Aged 65 and over: 3

MDG × SAU · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

At today's rates, a woman in Madagascar would have about 3.8 children in her lifetime. In Saudi Arabia, about 2.3. A baby born in Madagascar this year can expect to live about 64 years. In Saudi Arabia, about 79.

Children per woman, 2026

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

Madagascar 3.8

Saudi Arabia 2.3

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.

Madagascar 64 years

Saudi Arabia 79 years

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

MDG × SAU · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

Saudi Arabia is the larger of the two, with about as many people as Madagascar: 35.2 million to 33.5 million.

Set each against its own 1950 self and Madagascar's population is 8.5 times what it was in 1950, Saudi Arabia's population is 20.6 times what it was in 1950.

Madagascar's population is still growing in 2100. Meanwhile Saudi Arabia's population is still growing in 2100. The UN expects Madagascar to have more people than Saudi Arabia from 2033. In 2100: 85.3 million in Madagascar, 71.0 million in Saudi Arabia (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Madagascar: people	Saudi Arabia: people	Madagascar: half older than	Saudi Arabia: half older than	Madagascar: children per woman	Saudi Arabia: children per woman	Madagascar: life expectancy	Saudi Arabia: life expectancy
1950	3.95607 million	1.70327 million	20.7	19.0	7.43	7.58	39.7	40.0
1960	5.11103 million	2.43540 million	17.8	18.6	7.34	7.63	43.4	45.3
1970	6.67200 million	3.56247 million	16.6	17.3	7.10	7.58	47.9	52.7
1980	9.00603 million	6.04800 million	16.4	18.1	6.84	7.14	50.0	62.4
1990	12.0556 million	10.6407 million	16.8	19.0	6.14	5.80	52.1	68.9
2000	16.5163 million	16.1777 million	17.1	20.7	5.67	4.21	58.0	72.6
2010	22.1833 million	25.1571 million	17.7	24.5	4.90	2.81	62.6	75.6
2023	31.1959 million	33.2643 million	19.9	30.2	3.97	2.28	63.6	78.7
2030*	36.6932 million	37.4438 million	21.1	30.7	3.56	2.17	65.0	80.3
2040*	44.8469 million	42.5922 million	23.0	31.7	3.12	1.98	66.8	82.3
2050*	53.1855 million	47.6939 million	25.2	33.0	2.82	1.88	68.3	84.0
2060*	61.3529 million	52.6791 million	27.4	34.0	2.59	1.81	69.6	85.5
2070*	68.9261 million	57.4625 million	29.4	35.0	2.41	1.77	70.9	86.9
2080*	75.5124 million	61.9654 million	31.5	35.8	2.25	1.75	72.2	88.1
2090*	80.9926 million	66.4651 million	33.4	36.4	2.15	1.73	73.5	89.3
2100*	85.3411 million	71.0067 million	35.2	36.8	2.06	1.72	74.8	90.3

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

MDG − SAU · 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 Madagascar and which is Saudi Arabia, 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; Madagascar is drawn in solid blue squares and Saudi Arabia 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: Madagascar · Saudi Arabia. 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.

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