Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

South Africa and Thailand, side by side

South Africa in 2026: half the people are older than 30. Thailand: half are older than 42.

UN estimates for mid-2023: South Africa 63,212,384 people · Thailand 71,702,435

South Africa 65.5 million people Half are older than 30 7 in 100 are 65 or older

Thailand 71.6 million people Half are older than 42 17 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

ZAF × THA · 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.

South Africa

Children, under 15: 26
Aged 15 to 64: 67
Aged 65 and over: 7

Thailand

Children, under 15: 14
Aged 15 to 64: 69
Aged 65 and over: 17

ZAF × THA · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

If the birth rates of this year held for a whole lifetime, a woman in South Africa would have about 2.2 children and a woman in Thailand about 1.2. Around 2.1 children per woman keeps a population the same size over time, leaving migration aside. Babies born this year can expect about 67 years of life in South Africa and about 77 in Thailand.

Children per woman, 2026

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

South Africa 2.2

Thailand 1.2

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.

South Africa 67 years

Thailand 77 years

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

ZAF × THA · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

Thailand is the larger of the two, with about as many people as South Africa: 71.6 million to 65.5 million.

Since 1950 the two have moved differently: South Africa's population is 5.0 times what it was in 1950, while Thailand's population is 3.5 times what it was in 1950.

Looking ahead: South Africa's population is still growing in 2100, and Thailand's population peaked in 2022. The UN expects South Africa to have more people than Thailand from 2035. In 2100: 94.3 million in South Africa, 45.6 million in Thailand (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	South Africa: people	Thailand: people	South Africa: half older than	Thailand: half older than	South Africa: children per woman	Thailand: children per woman	South Africa: life expectancy	Thailand: life expectancy
1950	13.0385 million	20.4284 million	20.2	18.5	6.03	6.36	43.1	45.2
1960	16.4402 million	26.8517 million	18.9	17.9	6.11	6.33	52.6	50.6
1970	22.2800 million	35.9544 million	18.7	17.3	5.63	5.45	55.7	56.5
1980	29.5189 million	45.6500 million	19.4	19.9	4.78	3.29	60.0	62.2
1990	40.7463 million	54.7383 million	21.3	24.2	3.72	2.06	62.9	68.9
2000	47.1597 million	63.0078 million	21.8	30.0	2.41	1.73	58.4	71.2
2010	52.3441 million	68.5794 million	24.6	34.5	2.44	1.56	58.9	75.0
2023	63.2124 million	71.7024 million	29.2	40.7	2.22	1.21	66.1	76.4
2030*	68.1614 million	71.2150 million	30.6	43.6	2.10	1.20	67.3	77.9
2040*	74.0356 million	69.5350 million	32.0	47.0	1.98	1.25	68.9	79.9
2050*	79.1773 million	66.3827 million	33.3	49.6	1.89	1.29	70.3	81.7
2060*	83.4435 million	61.9770 million	35.0	51.5	1.84	1.33	71.7	83.3
2070*	86.8570 million	57.4162 million	36.2	53.0	1.80	1.37	73.1	84.7
2080*	89.6741 million	53.1630 million	37.2	53.0	1.77	1.40	74.5	86.0
2090*	92.1607 million	49.1948 million	38.3	52.9	1.75	1.42	75.9	87.2
2100*	94.3144 million	45.5551 million	39.3	52.9	1.74	1.44	77.3	88.4

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

ZAF − THA · 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 South Africa and which is Thailand, 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; South Africa is drawn in solid blue squares and Thailand in open orange squares, so you can see whether each is ahead of the crowd, behind it or in the middle.

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Keep exploring

Each place on its own: South Africa · Thailand. 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.

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