Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Poland and Saudi Arabia, side by side

In 2026, half of the people in Poland are older than 44. In Saudi Arabia, half are older than 31.

UN estimates for mid-2023: Poland 38,762,844 people · Saudi Arabia 33,264,292

Poland 37.8 million people Half are older than 44 21 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

POL × 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.

Poland

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

Saudi Arabia

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

POL × SAU · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

Poland is at about 1.3 children for each woman, at this year's rates; Saudi Arabia is at about 2.3. Around 2.1 children per woman keeps a population the same size over time, leaving migration aside. Life expectancy at birth this year: about 79 years in Poland, about 79 in Saudi Arabia.

Children per woman, 2026

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

Poland 1.3

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.

Poland 79 years

Saudi Arabia 79 years

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

POL × SAU · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

Poland is the larger of the two, with about as many people as Saudi Arabia: 37.8 million to 35.2 million.

Set each against its own 1950 self and Poland's population is 1.5 times what it was in 1950, Saudi Arabia's population is 20.6 times what it was in 1950.

Looking ahead: Poland's population peaked in 2023, and Saudi Arabia's population is still growing in 2100. The UN expects Saudi Arabia to have more people than Poland from 2030. In 2100: 19.3 million in Poland, 71.0 million in Saudi Arabia (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	Poland: people	Saudi Arabia: people	Poland: half older than	Saudi Arabia: half older than	Poland: children per woman	Saudi Arabia: children per woman	Poland: life expectancy	Saudi Arabia: life expectancy
1950	24.7802 million	1.70327 million	25.8	19.0	3.65	7.58	58.3	40.0
1960	29.5760 million	2.43540 million	26.6	18.6	3.00	7.63	67.1	45.3
1970	32.5426 million	3.56247 million	28.3	17.3	2.25	7.58	69.6	52.7
1980	35.5765 million	6.04800 million	29.5	18.1	2.28	7.14	70.5	62.4
1990	38.0555 million	10.6407 million	32.4	19.0	2.06	5.80	70.6	68.9
2000	38.2581 million	16.1777 million	35.3	20.7	1.37	4.21	73.7	72.6
2010	38.0954 million	25.1571 million	37.9	24.5	1.41	2.81	76.3	75.6
2023	38.7628 million	33.2643 million	42.3	30.2	1.30	2.28	78.6	78.7
2030*	37.1985 million	37.4438 million	46.0	30.7	1.33	2.17	79.8	80.3
2040*	35.1795 million	42.5922 million	50.3	31.7	1.37	1.98	81.5	82.3
2050*	32.8141 million	47.6939 million	52.8	33.0	1.40	1.88	83.0	84.0
2060*	30.1392 million	52.6791 million	53.5	34.0	1.42	1.81	84.4	85.5
2070*	27.1036 million	57.4625 million	55.4	35.0	1.45	1.77	85.6	86.9
2080*	24.0377 million	61.9654 million	56.2	35.8	1.46	1.75	86.8	88.1
2090*	21.4526 million	66.4651 million	55.5	36.4	1.47	1.73	87.9	89.3
2100*	19.3298 million	71.0067 million	56.3	36.8	1.49	1.72	89.0	90.3

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

POL − 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 Poland 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; Poland 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: Poland · 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