Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Niger and North Korea, side by side

Line both places up by age in 2026. In Niger, half are older than 17; in North Korea, half are older than 38.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Niger 26,159,867 people · North Korea 26,418,204

Niger 28.8 million people Half are older than 17 3 in 100 are 65 or older

North Korea 26.6 million people Half are older than 38 13 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

NER × PRK · 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.

Niger

Children, under 15: 46
Aged 15 to 64: 51
Aged 65 and over: 3

North Korea

Children, under 15: 19
Aged 15 to 64: 68
Aged 65 and over: 13

NER × PRK · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

If the birth rates of this year held for a whole lifetime, a woman in Niger would have about 5.6 children and a woman in North Korea about 1.8. Around 2.1 children per woman keeps a population the same size over time, leaving migration aside. Babies born this year can expect about 62 years of life in Niger and about 74 in North Korea.

Children per woman, 2026

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

Niger 5.6

North Korea 1.8

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.

Niger 62 years

North Korea 74 years

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

NER × PRK · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

Niger is the larger of the two, with about as many people as North Korea: 28.8 million to 26.6 million.

Since 1950 the two have moved differently: Niger's population is 11.1 times what it was in 1950, while North Korea's population is 2.4 times what it was in 1950.

Niger's population is still growing in 2100; North Korea's population is expected to peak in 2032. In 2100: 90.8 million in Niger, 19.5 million in North Korea (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Niger: people	North Korea: people	Niger: half older than	North Korea: half older than	Niger: children per woman	North Korea: children per woman	Niger: life expectancy	North Korea: life expectancy
1950	2.59781 million	11.1167 million	15.0	17.3	7.56	4.99	35.9	14.2
1960	3.50505 million	11.7230 million	15.4	19.9	7.53	3.57	36.2	55.8
1970	4.65027 million	15.1728 million	15.8	21.4	7.51	3.85	35.9	62.0
1980	6.13597 million	18.2368 million	16.3	22.4	7.78	2.84	39.3	67.2
1990	8.28606 million	21.1121 million	16.5	25.9	7.81	2.39	41.7	70.5
2000	11.5096 million	23.6659 million	16.2	30.1	7.83	1.94	49.2	60.9
2010	16.5488 million	24.9873 million	15.3	34.0	7.64	1.89	57.1	70.3
2023	26.1599 million	26.4182 million	16.3	37.0	6.06	1.78	61.2	73.6
2030*	32.5181 million	26.7849 million	17.4	39.0	5.08	1.72	62.8	74.5
2040*	42.3167 million	26.5424 million	19.6	42.1	3.91	1.69	64.8	75.7
2050*	52.5139 million	25.7871 million	22.2	43.9	3.22	1.67	66.5	77.0
2060*	62.7243 million	24.6827 million	25.0	44.7	2.77	1.66	68.0	78.4
2070*	72.1664 million	23.3978 million	27.9	46.6	2.47	1.66	69.4	79.8
2080*	80.2270 million	22.1247 million	30.6	48.0	2.26	1.65	70.6	81.2
2090*	86.4982 million	20.8217 million	33.2	48.4	2.11	1.65	71.9	82.5
2100*	90.8193 million	19.5121 million	35.5	49.6	2.01	1.64	73.1	83.8

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

NER − PRK · 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 Niger and which is North Korea, 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; Niger is drawn in solid blue squares and North Korea 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: Niger · North Korea. 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.

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