Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

South Korea and Spain, side by side

Line both places up by age in 2026. In South Korea, half are older than 47; in Spain, half are older than 47.

UN estimates for mid-2023: South Korea 51,748,739 people · Spain 47,911,580

South Korea 51.6 million people Half are older than 47 21 in 100 are 65 or older

Spain 47.9 million people Half are older than 47 22 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

KOR × ESP · 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 Korea

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

Spain

Children, under 15: 12
Aged 15 to 64: 66
Aged 65 and over: 22

KOR × ESP · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

At today's rates, a woman in South Korea would have about 0.8 children in her lifetime. In Spain, about 1.2. Babies born this year can expect about 85 years of life in South Korea and about 84 in Spain.

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 Korea 0.8

Spain 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 Korea 85 years

Spain 84 years

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

KOR × ESP · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

South Korea is the larger of the two, with about as many people as Spain: 51.6 million to 47.9 million.

South Korea's population is 2.6 times what it was in 1950; Spain's population is 1.7 times what it was in 1950.

South Korea's population peaked in 2020; Spain's population peaked in 2023. The UN expects Spain to have more people than South Korea from 2051. In 2100: 21.8 million in South Korea, 33.1 million in Spain (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	South Korea: people	Spain: people	South Korea: half older than	Spain: half older than	South Korea: children per woman	Spain: children per woman	South Korea: life expectancy	Spain: life expectancy
1950	19.7573 million	28.0770 million	18.7	27.5	6.06	2.47	22.2	61.8
1960	26.1154 million	30.4049 million	19.3	29.4	5.99	2.81	53.8	69.2
1970	32.5422 million	33.8127 million	18.7	30.1	4.46	2.88	62.2	72.2
1980	38.1411 million	37.5376 million	21.9	30.7	2.73	2.21	64.8	75.5
1990	44.0814 million	39.0850 million	26.8	33.5	1.60	1.36	71.0	77.0
2000	46.7667 million	41.0198 million	31.7	37.3	1.47	1.21	76.2	79.4
2010	48.7693 million	46.8405 million	37.6	40.2	1.23	1.37	80.7	82.0
2023	51.7487 million	47.9116 million	45.5	45.9	0.72	1.21	84.3	83.7
2030*	51.1886 million	47.6105 million	49.5	49.0	0.81	1.26	85.1	84.6
2040*	48.9487 million	46.5917 million	54.3	52.0	0.93	1.31	86.2	85.9
2050*	45.1431 million	44.9286 million	57.7	52.8	1.03	1.36	87.3	87.1
2060*	39.8572 million	42.2108 million	61.1	53.0	1.10	1.39	88.5	88.4
2070*	34.4530 million	39.0358 million	62.5	53.7	1.16	1.43	89.6	89.5
2080*	29.6715 million	36.5245 million	64.0	52.6	1.21	1.46	90.7	90.7
2090*	25.4491 million	34.7742 million	62.2	52.4	1.26	1.47	91.9	91.8
2100*	21.8488 million	33.1275 million	60.9	53.2	1.30	1.48	93.1	92.9

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

KOR − ESP · 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 Korea and which is Spain, 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 Korea is drawn in solid blue squares and Spain 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: South Korea · Spain. 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.

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