Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Malaysia and Poland, side by side

Line both places up by age in 2026. In Malaysia, half are older than 32; in Poland, half are older than 44.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Malaysia 35,126,298 people · Poland 38,762,844

Malaysia 36.4 million people Half are older than 32 8 in 100 are 65 or older

Poland 37.8 million people Half are older than 44 21 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

MYS × POL · 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.

Malaysia

Children, under 15: 21
Aged 15 to 64: 71
Aged 65 and over: 8

Poland

Children, under 15: 14
Aged 15 to 64: 65
Aged 65 and over: 21

MYS × POL · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

Malaysia is at about 1.5 children for each woman, at this year's rates; Poland is at about 1.3. Babies born this year can expect about 77 years of life in Malaysia and about 79 in Poland.

Children per woman, 2026

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

Malaysia 1.5

Poland 1.3

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.

Malaysia 77 years

Poland 79 years

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

MYS × POL · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

Poland is the larger of the two, with about as many people as Malaysia: 37.8 million to 36.4 million.

Set each against its own 1950 self and Malaysia's population is 6.0 times what it was in 1950, Poland's population is 1.5 times what it was in 1950.

Malaysia's population is expected to peak in 2072; Poland's population peaked in 2023. The UN expects Malaysia to have more people than Poland from 2029. In 2100: 44.0 million in Malaysia, 19.3 million in Poland (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Malaysia: people	Poland: people	Malaysia: half older than	Poland: half older than	Malaysia: children per woman	Poland: children per woman	Malaysia: life expectancy	Poland: life expectancy
1950	6.09828 million	24.7802 million	19.8	25.8	6.43	3.65	48.5	58.3
1960	7.95620 million	29.5760 million	17.5	26.6	6.41	3.00	57.2	67.1
1970	10.1788 million	32.5426 million	17.3	28.3	5.04	2.25	63.3	69.6
1980	12.9834 million	35.5765 million	19.7	29.5	4.04	2.28	68.1	70.5
1990	17.8332 million	38.0555 million	21.4	32.4	3.30	2.06	71.0	70.6
2000	22.9678 million	38.2581 million	23.5	35.3	2.94	1.37	72.7	73.7
2010	28.6558 million	38.0954 million	26.0	37.9	2.14	1.41	75.4	76.3
2023	35.1263 million	38.7628 million	31.1	42.3	1.55	1.30	76.7	78.6
2030*	37.9617 million	37.1985 million	34.0	46.0	1.51	1.33	77.8	79.8
2040*	41.5096 million	35.1795 million	37.8	50.3	1.51	1.37	79.5	81.5
2050*	44.2898 million	32.8141 million	41.1	52.8	1.53	1.40	81.1	83.0
2060*	45.8501 million	30.1392 million	44.3	53.5	1.53	1.42	82.7	84.4
2070*	46.3730 million	27.1036 million	46.1	55.4	1.55	1.45	84.1	85.6
2080*	46.1191 million	24.0377 million	46.9	56.2	1.56	1.46	85.5	86.8
2090*	45.1730 million	21.4526 million	47.7	55.5	1.56	1.47	86.7	87.9
2100*	44.0261 million	19.3298 million	48.4	56.3	1.56	1.49	87.9	89.0

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

MYS − POL · 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 Malaysia and which is Poland, 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; Malaysia is drawn in solid blue squares and Poland 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: Malaysia · Poland. 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.

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