Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Nigeria and South Korea, side by side

Nigeria in 2026: half the people are older than 19. South Korea: half are older than 47.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Nigeria 227,882,945 people · South Korea 51,748,739

Nigeria 242 million people Half are older than 19 3 in 100 are 65 or older

South Korea 51.6 million people Half are older than 47 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

NGA × KOR · 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.

Nigeria

Children, under 15: 40
Aged 15 to 64: 57
Aged 65 and over: 3

South Korea

Children, under 15: 10
Aged 15 to 64: 69
Aged 65 and over: 21

NGA × KOR · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

If the birth rates of this year held for a whole lifetime, a woman in Nigeria would have about 4.2 children and a woman in South Korea about 0.8. Around 2.1 children per woman keeps a population the same size over time, leaving migration aside. A baby born in Nigeria this year can expect to live about 55 years. In South Korea, about 85.

Children per woman, 2026

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

Nigeria 4.2

South Korea 0.8

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.

Nigeria 55 years

South Korea 85 years

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

NGA × KOR · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

Nigeria is the larger of the two, with about 5 times as many people as South Korea: 242 million to 51.6 million.

Nigeria's population is 6.5 times what it was in 1950; South Korea's population is 2.6 times what it was in 1950.

Nigeria's population is still growing in 2100. Meanwhile South Korea's population peaked in 2020. In 2100: 477 million in Nigeria, 21.8 million in South Korea (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Nigeria: people	South Korea: people	Nigeria: half older than	South Korea: half older than	Nigeria: children per woman	South Korea: children per woman	Nigeria: life expectancy	South Korea: life expectancy
1950	37.2830 million	19.7573 million	19.1	18.7	6.42	6.06	35.5	22.2
1960	45.0538 million	26.1154 million	19.3	19.3	6.36	5.99	37.2	53.8
1970	55.8938 million	32.5422 million	18.9	18.7	6.47	4.46	40.0	62.2
1980	73.7646 million	38.1411 million	17.7	21.9	6.85	2.73	46.0	64.8
1990	97.1209 million	44.0814 million	17.2	26.8	6.46	1.60	45.7	71.0
2000	126.382 million	46.7667 million	17.8	31.7	6.12	1.47	47.1	76.2
2010	166.643 million	48.7693 million	17.7	37.6	5.95	1.23	51.3	80.7
2023	227.883 million	51.7487 million	18.8	45.5	4.48	0.72	54.5	84.3
2030*	262.381 million	51.1886 million	20.3	49.5	3.82	0.81	55.5	85.1
2040*	312.710 million	48.9487 million	22.7	54.3	3.10	0.93	57.1	86.2
2050*	359.186 million	45.1431 million	24.9	57.7	2.66	1.03	58.5	87.3
2060*	399.785 million	39.8572 million	27.3	61.1	2.39	1.10	59.9	88.5
2070*	433.486 million	34.4530 million	29.8	62.5	2.20	1.16	61.2	89.6
2080*	457.922 million	29.6715 million	32.0	64.0	2.07	1.21	62.5	90.7
2090*	471.886 million	25.4491 million	33.8	62.2	1.98	1.26	63.6	91.9
2100*	476.748 million	21.8488 million	35.3	60.9	1.91	1.30	64.7	93.1

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

NGA − KOR · 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 Nigeria and which is South 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; Nigeria is drawn in solid blue squares and South 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: Nigeria · South 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.

The working behind the median age, the rounding in the “100 people” pictures and the reason the regions are kept out of the all-country views are all set out in the method.

250 comparisons have a page of their own; any other two places can be compared from the boxes at the top.

Sources: UN WPP 2024 · flag-icons. Every source, its licence and how to cite it →

Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries