El Salvador population

On the UN's projection, El Salvador will have the most working-age people it ever has in 2042: 4,562,770 people aged 15–64. In 2023 it had 4,214,150.

aged 15–64   children under 15   aged 65 and over

How to read this: one orange square for each of 100 people aged 15–64 in 2023. Beneath them, teal for the children living alongside those 100 and violet for the people aged 65 or older.

Fewer than 50 dependants live alongside every 100 people aged 15–64 in 34 years: 2023–2056.

fewer than 50 dependants per 100   the same, projected   50 or more

How to read this: one stripe a year from 1950 to 2100. A stripe takes colour in a year when fewer than 50 dependants live alongside every 100 people of working age, and stays grey otherwise; hatching means the year is projected.

How every country compares

In 2020–2025 El Salvador loses 24,306 people a year: everyone who arrives, minus everyone who leaves. The age at which that happens most is 20–24, at 4,573 a year more leaving than arriving.

more arrive than leave   more leave than arrive

How to read this: each column is one age, youngest on the left. Above the line, in blue, are the ages gaining people; below it, in orange, the ages losing them. This is the UN's projection for 2020–2025 — the record of migration by age does not go back beyond 2020.

Across the counted years, 1950 to 2023, its biggest single-year gain was -2,919 (1968); its biggest loss, 99,293 (1998).

In 2024, 43,342 people living in El Salvador had been born in another country, fewer than 1 of every 100 people there, against fewer than 1 in 1990.

How migration works everywhere

Of every 100 babies born in El Salvador in 2023, 15 had a mother under 20, 74 a mother aged 20 to 34 and 11 a mother aged 35 or older. In 1950 it was 14 under 20 and 13 aged 35 or older.

The mother's age: under 20 20 to 34 35 or older projected

How to read this: shrink a year's babies to 100 and colour each one by the age of its mother — that is a block. Under it, the same three groups as numbers, starting with the youngest mothers.

Babies born, 2023

99,428

Average age when women have a baby

27.1 years

28.4 in 1950

Babies a year per 1,000 girls aged 15–19

54

121 in 1950

At the end of 2025, 71,500 people were displaced inside El Salvador, about 11 of every 1,000 people living there.

1. hosted from abroad510
2. displaced inside it71,500
3. El Salvador nationals abroad176,471

stayed inside their own country   crossed a border

How to read this: one square stands for 5,000 people, so the rows can be compared with one another. The last row is people from El Salvador living in another country, wherever they are. An outlined square means fewer people than one square stands for.

In 2025, 172 people asked for asylum in El Salvador for the first time; 24,449 people from El Salvador asked for asylum in another country. Of every 100 people from El Salvador whose claims were decided that year, 22 were given protection. Who asks for asylum, and who is given it

How the world's displacement is counted

Of every 100 people in El Salvador in 2025, 43 lived in a city, 34 in a town or suburb and 23 in the countryside.

How to read this: one square for every hundredth person, coloured as the key shows. Because the rule behind the colours is the same everywhere, two countries' squares can be compared directly.

How the world's people live

Of every 100 adults in El Salvador in 2020, 16 never went to school and 30 finished upper secondary or went further.

Compare two generations. Aged 60–64, 30.1 of every 100 women and 21.4 of every 100 men never went to school; aged 25–29, 4.8 and 5.5.

Its people aged 15 to 64 are projected to be most numerous in 2035; the ones who finished upper secondary are most numerous later, in 2060.

How to read this: 100 squares, one for every hundredth adult aged 25 or over, from least schooling on the left to most on the right. Counted by the Wittgenstein Centre for 2020.

How far the world's people went in school

El Salvador had 12 cities in 2025, home to 2.7 million people. The largest, San Salvador, holds 25 of every 100 people in El Salvador.

1. San Salvador1,615,178
2. Santa Ana214,624
3. Sonsonate177,507
4. San Miguel166,162
5. Lourdes127,882
6. Ahuachapan84,825
7. Chalchuapa65,900
8. Usulután64,355
9. Zacatecoluca61,551
10. Cojutepeque55,151

How to read this: the 10 largest cities in 2025, bars on one scale. A city is the whole built-up area on the UN's rule, not the city's own boundary.

All the world's cities