Work · people aged 15 to 64

Who does the work

5.26 billionpeople aged 15–64 in 2023
2070the year the world will have the most (UN projection)
74 of 236countries already past their most
54children and older people for every 100 aged 15–64, 2023

In 2023 there were 5,258,240,000 people in the world aged between 15 and 64 — the ages at which most people work. That number has never stopped growing. In the UN's projection it goes on growing until 2070, reaches 6.29 billion, and then falls for the first time ever.

most ever, 20701950200020502100

How to read this: one column per year, 1950 to 2100. The taller the column, the more people aged 15–64 were alive that year. Hatched columns are the UN's projection, not a count.

This counts ages, not jobs. Nobody in this data was asked whether they have work, whether they are studying, retired early or at home with a family. It is the number of people who are old enough and not yet old — and from that alone, a great deal about a country's next fifty years already follows.

Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries

In plain words

What is it?

Working age is a band of ages, not a job. The UN counts everyone from their 15th birthday to the day before their 65th as being of working age, in every country and every year, so that countries can be compared fairly. Some of them are at school, some have retired early, some look after a family. The first sections of this page count ages, never jobs; the later ones count the labour force — people working or looking for work, as the International Labour Organization estimates it.

Everyone else is a dependant: children under 15 and people aged 65 and over. The number of dependants for every 100 people of working age is the dependency ratio. In 2023 the world had 54.

A country's working-age population grows while each year more young people turn 15 than older people turn 65. When that flips, the number reaches its peak and starts to fall. Japan passed its peak in 1995, China in 2015. The world as a whole is expected to reach its peak in 2070.

Why it matters to you

Pensions and care. When there are more older people for every worker, each worker’s taxes and time are shared among more of them.
Schools and first jobs. Where the working-age number is still rising fast, every year more young people need a first job than the year before.
A future that is already known. Everyone who will be 40 in 2060 has been born. This is one of the few things about the future that can be counted in advance.
A window that closes. Countries with many adults and few dependants have a chance to save and build. That demographic dividend does not last.

The turn

The year a country has the most workers it will ever have

Every country reaches a year with more working-age people than it will ever have again. 74 of the 236 countries and areas the UN counts have already passed it. China's year was 2015, at 1.00 billion people aged 15–64. Japan's was 1995: it had 87.6 million then and 73.1 million in 2023.

by 19802Hungary · Niue
1981–200023Japan · Germany
2001–202045China · Russia
2021–204040Brazil · Vietnam
2041–206027India · Indonesia
2061–208024Algeria · Syria
2081–209920Pakistan · Nigeria
still rising in 210055Democratic Republic of the Congo · United States

a country whose working-age population peaks in those years still growing in 2100: no peak yet

How to read this: one square is one country, in the row for the years its working-age population is at its highest. The last row, in the paler colour, is the 55 countries still growing in 2100 — the count stops before their peak does. The names on the right are the two largest countries in each row.

India passes its peak in 2048 and Nigeria not until 2096. None of this is about how hard anyone works or how rich a country is: it is only about when people were born. Everyone who will be working in 2100 has already been born, or will be by about the middle of this century.

Alongside

Who 100 working-age people live alongside

In 1950, every 100 people aged 15–64 in the world lived alongside 58 children and 8 people aged 65 or older. In 2023 it was 39 children and 15 older people. By 2100 the projection has 28 children and 40 older people — nearly the same number, arriving from opposite directions.

aged 15–64 children under 15 aged 65 and over

1950

100 aged 15–64

58 children

8 aged 65+

1990

100 aged 15–64

54 children

10 aged 65+

2023

100 aged 15–64

39 children

15 aged 65+

2060 projection

100 aged 15–64

31 children

30 aged 65+

2100 projection

100 aged 15–64

28 children

40 aged 65+

How to read this: in each block the orange squares are 100 people aged 15–64, and the two rows below them are how many children (teal) and how many people aged 65 or older (violet) lived alongside those 100 that year. Hatched squares are a projection, not a count.

The total barely moves: about 66 dependants per 100 in 1950 and 68 in 2100. What changes completely is who they are. A world of children needs schools and midwives; a world of older people needs nurses, pensions and homes near everything. It is the same fact the world pyramid shows, counted a different way.

The window

The years with unusually many adults

There is a stretch in a country's history when it has an unusual number of working-age people and unusually few children and older people alongside them: fewer than 50 dependants for every 100 people aged 15–64. It opens once, it closes, and it does not come back. Japan's ran 1963–2003; China's 1996–2036; India's 2019–2053, open now; Nigeria's does not open until 2058.

Japan1963–2003
Germany1950–1960 and 1981–2004
Russia1954–1956 and 1972–2020
China1996–2036
Brazil2004–2039
United States1982–1987 and 2001–2014
Iran2003–2045
India2019–2053
Egyptnot in these years
Kenya2054–2074
Nigeria2058–2100
Niger2074–2092
1950200020502100

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

How to read this: one strip per country, 1950 on the left and 2100 on the right. The strip is coloured in the years when fewer than 50 dependants live alongside every 100 people aged 15–64 and grey in the rest; hatched years are the projection.

It is a window, not a gift: it says only that a country has a great many adults at once, and what it does with them is the whole question. Nor is it always one piece — the United States is open in 20 years altogether, 1982–1987 and 2001–2014, because its children and its older people took turns.

People in work · 1990 to 2024

Who is in work: women and men

In 2024, 49 of every 100 women aged 15 and over were working or looking for work, against 73 of every 100 men. That is 1.51 billion women and 2.25 billion men — 3,756,228,563 people in all.

199020002010202425%50%75%men 73.2%women 49.1%

women men

How to read this: of every 100 women (men) aged 15 and over, how many were in work or looking for it, 1990 to 2024. Both lines have drifted down since 1990: more young people stay at school for longer, and more people live past the age of working. The dip in 2020 is the pandemic.

Of every 100 people in work in 2024, 40 were women. Much of the work women do is not counted here at all: caring for children and older relatives, and cooking and farming for the family. The count is of work for pay or for sale.

Of every 100 people in work, how many are women

Fewest

Most

How to read this: each bar is how many of every 100 people in work in the country are women; the upright line is the world's 40. Half would be 50.

School age · 5 to 17

Children for every person in work

For every 100 people in work in 2024 there were 47 children of school age (5 to 17) — down from 61 in 1990.

19902000201020242040606147

How to read this: school-age children, counted by the UN, for every 100 people in work or looking for it, 1990 to 2024. The line falls because fewer babies were born for each adult, not because children went to work.

It is the count of people by age that decides this number. A country where many babies were born in the last 17 years has many school places to fill for each person earning; a country where few were born has few. São Tomé and Príncipe and Somalia have the most; Qatar and Singapore the fewest.

Most children per 100 in work

Fewest

How to read this: school-age children for every 100 people in work in each country, 2024; the upright line is the world's 47. A bar past 100 means more children than workers.

Every country: women and men in work, and children per 100 in work, 2024

Country	Women in work, of 100	Men, of 100	Women, of 100 in work	Children 5–17 per 100 in work
Afghanistan	5.1	70	7	157.9
Albania	58.2	70.1	46	28.7
Algeria	14.3	67	17	88.5
Angola	72.4	77.5	49	82.1
Argentina	52.3	71.8	43	42.5
Armenia	51.6	70	47	35.6
Australia	62.6	70.9	48	28.8
Austria	55.4	65.8	47	24.1
Azerbaijan	61.4	66.7	50	40.1
Bahamas	71	77.4	51	27.7
Bahrain	42.4	86	21	28
Bangladesh	38.7	80.6	34	57.2
Barbados	61.4	69	50	29.1
Belarus	57.2	70.4	49	29.4
Belgium	50	59.3	47	32.1
Belize	43.8	69.8	38	56.5
Benin	75	77.6	49	73.8
Bhutan	56.6	72	40	38.5
Bolivia	72.4	84.3	46	46.3
Bosnia and Herzegovina	39.4	60.4	42	28.2
Botswana	63.5	73.8	47	56.1
Brazil	53.6	73.6	43	34.7
Brunei	54.7	73.1	40	35.4
Bulgaria	50.5	62.6	47	27
Burkina Faso	64.1	76.2	47	85
Burundi	79.7	77.2	52	83.9
Cabo Verde	50.4	63.5	44	57.1
Cambodia	77.3	87.8	49	43.7
Cameroon	57.1	74.1	44	85.6
Canada	60.4	69.2	47	24.9
Central African Republic	65.5	82.8	49	101.4
Chad	47.6	71.8	40	107.8
Chile	52.8	72	43	30.8
China	59.4	70.3	45	29.2
Colombia	51.7	75.9	42	35.5
Comoros	47.1	63.6	43	86.4
Costa Rica	46	69.9	41	38
Côte d’Ivoire	59.5	74.4	43	83.3
Croatia	47.5	57.6	47	28.5
Cuba	40.4	65.4	39	31.5
Cyprus	61.4	72.9	46	24
Czechia	53.7	67.9	45	27.1
Democratic Republic of the Congo	61.9	67	49	99.1
Denmark	60.9	69.3	47	25.7
Djibouti	19.2	44.7	31	112
Dominican Republic	53.3	76.4	42	48.6
Ecuador	52.4	76.9	41	45.4
Egypt	18.5	70.6	21	90.9
El Salvador	49	77	43	48
Equatorial Guinea	53	67.6	40	77.8
Eritrea	72.9	84.1	48	66.4
Estonia	61.3	70.2	50	26.3
Eswatini	48.4	54.2	49	83
Ethiopia	58.4	78.7	43	74.6
Fiji	38.5	76.6	34	56.7
Finland	56.7	63.2	48	27.1
France	51.8	59.9	48	32.7
French Polynesia	47	58.5	44	43.4
Gabon	41.8	60.4	40	89.5
Gambia	45.4	49.6	48	116.3
Georgia	56.7	73.6	48	36.4
Germany	55.6	66.4	47	23.1
Ghana	55.7	62.4	48	78.3
Greece	45	60.3	45	27.9
Guam	56.5	68	45	47
Guatemala	38.4	81.8	33	67.7
Guinea	42.9	63.3	42	104.3
Guinea-Bissau	60.2	69.6	48	80.4
Guyana	47.4	63.6	45	63.1
Haiti	58.3	69.8	46	60.7
Honduras	39.6	73.6	35	66.1
Hong Kong	52.3	62.6	51	19.5
Hungary	54.4	67.6	47	24.7
Iceland	70.3	79.8	46	25.3
India	32.4	77.6	28	52.5
Indonesia	53.6	82.3	40	42.5
Iran	14.1	67.7	17	62.9
Iraq	11	72.6	13	116.9
Ireland	59.8	70.4	47	32.6
Israel	62.2	68.9	48	48.4
Italy	41	58.7	43	26.1
Jamaica	62.9	76.2	46	31.1
Japan	55.6	71.5	45	19.5
Jordan	16	62.3	19	96.6
Kazakhstan	65.3	76.4	48	48.3
Kenya	63	71.9	47	73.6
Kuwait	47.3	88.7	24	27.4
Kyrgyzstan	44.3	71.5	40	69.4
Laos	61.5	70.5	47	55.9
Latvia	55.5	67.2	50	28.1
Lesotho	48.5	67.2	44	78.7
Liberia	72	81.3	48	70.5
Libya	33.3	62.9	34	69.7
Lithuania	57.9	69.1	49	24.9
Luxembourg	57.6	65.9	46	26.5
Macao	63.5	74.1	51	21.4
Madagascar	82.9	88.1	49	60.2
Malawi	58.5	67.7	48	90
Malaysia	51.6	79.2	37	39
Maldives	40.5	76	23	35.2
Mali	53.1	81	39	99.1
Malta	55.9	71.8	42	20.6
Mauritania	26.2	56.9	33	143.9
Mauritius	47.5	69.9	40	27.9
Mexico	47.4	77.2	40	46.9
Moldova	72.2	72.1	55	31.1
Mongolia	52.1	68.8	44	67.1
Montenegro	51.4	65.8	47	34
Morocco	19.8	68.3	22	68.6
Mozambique	77.2	80.6	52	79
Myanmar	41	69.7	38	50.5
Namibia	54.9	63.1	48	79.1
Nepal	27.4	53.1	37	89
Netherlands	62.9	72.2	47	23.4
New Caledonia	51.6	62.4	46	41.5
New Zealand	66.3	75	48	28.2
Nicaragua	51.1	81.9	40	53.1
Niger	72.8	86.1	45	84.7
Nigeria	80.7	84.4	48	68.6
North Korea	77.7	86.8	48	24.4
North Macedonia	42.9	62.2	43	35.1
Norway	62.3	69.3	47	27
Oman	30.1	88.1	15	39.3
Pakistan	24	80.1	23	92.2
Panama	54.8	78	42	44
Papua New Guinea	50.7	53.2	48	80.5
Paraguay	58.9	81.7	42	47.8
Peru	64.9	80.9	45	38.3
Philippines	50.5	72.5	42	58.5
Poland	51.9	66	46	27.4
Portugal	54.9	62.4	50	22.8
Puerto Rico	36.7	49.4	46	31.9
Qatar	61.8	95.8	18	16.7
Republic of the Congo	65.6	70.1	49	81.6
Romania	41.9	61.8	42	33
Russia	55.2	69.8	49	31.1
Rwanda	57.1	70.5	47	77.4
Saint Lucia	61.9	74.8	46	28.5
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	59.3	76.5	43	36.8
Samoa	31.1	55.2	36	121.5
São Tomé and Príncipe	22.8	24	49	218.3
Saudi Arabia	33.3	83.5	19	41
Senegal	38	65.6	36	98.3
Serbia	52.6	66.6	47	25
Sierra Leone	51.8	55.4	49	94.1
Singapore	63.1	74.9	44	17.6
Slovakia	55.5	66.5	47	27.1
Slovenia	52.6	63.3	45	27.1
Solomon Islands	82.3	86.2	48	57.3
Somalia	20.7	47.3	31	192.3
South Africa	49.8	61.8	46	52.8
South Korea	56.8	72.2	44	18.7
Spain	53.2	62.7	47	24.9
Sri Lanka	31	67.9	33	52
Suriname	44.9	62.9	42	56
Sweden	61.7	67.8	47	28.6
Switzerland	62.5	71.8	47	22.9
Syria	12.8	61.7	17	100.9
Tajikistan	21.9	55.9	30	119.6
Tanzania	80.3	87.4	49	68.9
Thailand	59.5	75.4	46	24.5
Timor-Leste	61.5	72	46	66.5
Togo	56.6	59.2	49	91.1
Tonga	42.5	59.7	47	95.5
Trinidad and Tobago	48.1	68.5	42	33.6
Tunisia	26.6	65.3	30	62.1
Türkiye	36.8	71.9	34	45.8
Turkmenistan	38.4	46.3	47	88.5
Uganda	75.6	84.6	48	76.5
United Arab Emirates	52.5	91.6	22	20.4
United Kingdom	57.5	65.8	48	30.8
United States	56.6	67.4	46	31.1
Uruguay	57.3	73.5	46	32.7
US Virgin Islands	52.8	56.3	52	31.8
Uzbekistan	41.3	74.2	36	59.6
Vanuatu	53.5	63.2	46	85.9
Venezuela	37.3	67.5	37	62
Vietnam	68.9	77.7	49	36.9
Yemen	4.7	61.4	7	161.7
Zambia	56.4	67.6	46	92.2
Zimbabwe	62.1	74.4	50	84.6

55 places, mostly small islands and territories, have no ILO figure and are left out: American Samoa, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Taiwan, Mayotte, Cook Islands, Dominica, Faroe Islands, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Palestine, Gibraltar, Kiribati, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Kosovo, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Martinique, Monaco, Montserrat, Nauru, Curaçao, Aruba, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau, Réunion, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, San Marino, Seychelles, South Sudan, Sudan, Western Sahara, Tokelau, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Ukraine, Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man and Wallis and Futuna.

Output and hours · 2019

What a worker makes, and how long they work

In 2019, the middle worker on Earth — half of all workers make less, half more — lived in China and made about $25,360 of goods and services in the year. Across the 177 countries counted, a worker made anywhere from under $1,000 to over $221,000.

$1k$4k$16k$64kIndiaChinaUnited States

Across: what one worker makes in a year, each step to the right doubling it ($1k is $1,000).

How to read this: each square is one country, stacked above what its average worker made in 2019, in dollars of 2017 that buy the same in every country. The stronger the colour, the more. India, China and United States are ringed.

This figure is everything a country makes, split among the people who work there, so a country with machines, roads and schooling gets more from each worker. It is not anybody's pay. At the top, Ireland's figure is swollen by large foreign companies that book their profits there; at the bottom, Venezuela's collapsed in the crisis of the late 2010s.

Hours worked in a year, 1970 and 2019

China1,976
2,169
India2,077
2,123
United States1,893
1,765
Indonesia1,893
2,020
Brazil2,145
1,708
Japan2,137
1,691
Bangladesh2,521
2,419
Pakistan2,242
1,967
Mexico2,182
2,137
Vietnam2,987
2,132

1970 2019

How to read this: the ten countries with the most workers among those with both figures. The pale bar is the hours an average worker worked in 1970, the strong bar 2019. A full-time job of 40 hours a week for 48 weeks is 1,920 hours. In Germany, a worker's year fell to 1,386 hours.

Every country: output per worker and hours, 1990 and 2019

Country	Made per worker 1990	2019	Hours 1970	Hours 2019
Ireland	$55,001	$221,661	2,334	1,772
Qatar	$67,505	$155,062	—	—
Macao	$54,221	$154,394	—	—
Brunei	$153,643	$142,733	—	—
Norway	$67,535	$138,858	1,835	1,384
United States	$81,093	$130,107	1,893	1,765
Saudi Arabia	$60,918	$129,212	—	—
Switzerland	$73,362	$129,095	1,993	1,557
Singapore	$56,412	$127,117	2,348	2,330
Luxembourg	$79,072	$120,936	1,846	1,506
United Arab Emirates	$279,082	$111,202	—	—
Kuwait	$52,115	$110,038	—	—
Australia	$64,712	$106,092	1,942	1,727
Hong Kong	$68,558	$105,485	2,528	2,148
Sweden	$56,387	$105,203	1,704	1,605
Belgium	$67,678	$105,125	1,881	1,586
Austria	$57,740	$104,984	1,890	1,611
Denmark	$54,292	$104,931	1,845	1,381
Bahrain	$44,575	$103,646	—	—
France	$66,827	$103,284	1,993	1,505
Netherlands	$62,503	$100,464	1,838	1,440
Canada	$70,839	$96,702	1,925	1,689
Italy	$67,589	$96,355	2,035	1,718
Taiwan	$52,698	$95,946	2,301	2,085
Germany	$56,171	$95,441	1,973	1,386
Spain	$51,883	$94,937	1,997	1,686
Iceland	$62,705	$93,443	1,953	1,454
Finland	$55,539	$92,961	1,980	1,591
Bermuda	$483,866	$91,863	—	—
United Kingdom	$54,133	$90,651	1,871	1,668
Cayman Islands	—	$88,808	—	—
South Korea	$32,577	$80,702	2,919	1,980
British Virgin Islands	—	$80,364	—	—
Türkiye	$34,792	$80,044	2,086	1,832
New Zealand	$51,457	$79,249	1,867	1,779
Malta	$41,153	$77,819	—	1,915
Israel	$60,632	$77,690	—	1,901
Cyprus	$57,536	$76,532	—	1,805
Poland	$21,530	$74,995	—	2,023
Czechia	$46,290	$73,169	—	1,788
Aruba	—	$72,841	—	—
Japan	$56,197	$71,980	2,137	1,691
Slovenia	$35,594	$67,700	—	1,593
Equatorial Guinea	$7,785	$67,608	—	—
Greece	$44,689	$67,270	2,099	2,036
Estonia	$23,417	$66,683	—	1,797
Panama	$24,518	$66,088	—	—
Bosnia and Herzegovina	$2,791	$65,973	—	—
Portugal	$35,077	$65,535	2,102	1,865
Trinidad and Tobago	$39,787	$65,106	—	—
Lithuania	$31,844	$64,980	—	1,886
Latvia	$35,714	$62,548	—	1,865
Romania	$17,643	$62,215	—	1,792
Bahamas	$66,557	$62,163	—	—
Slovakia	$42,568	$60,725	—	1,695
Hungary	$28,758	$60,096	—	1,725
Kazakhstan	$26,663	$59,533	—	—
Croatia	$30,086	$59,084	—	1,831
Russia	$33,128	$58,060	—	1,965
Curaçao	—	$56,740	—	—
Montenegro	$42,160	$56,282	—	—
Oman	$50,130	$54,992	—	—
Maldives	$28,723	$54,406	—	—
Chile	$24,607	$54,405	2,160	1,914
Malaysia	$24,623	$54,387	2,230	2,197
Iraq	$36,104	$53,417	—	—
Seychelles	—	$51,751	—	—
Gabon	$39,396	$51,151	—	—
Mauritius	$30,981	$51,060	—	—
Lebanon	$21,548	$50,512	—	—
Georgia	$22,252	$49,682	—	—
Turkmenistan	$29,132	$47,790	—	—
Belarus	$28,381	$47,556	—	—
Argentina	$17,289	$47,348	2,006	1,609
Egypt	$10,234	$45,183	—	—
Armenia	$13,287	$45,112	—	—
Algeria	$51,952	$45,016	—	—
Iran	$15,085	$44,638	—	—
Jordan	$19,556	$44,317	—	—
Bulgaria	$25,989	$43,688	—	1,645
Uruguay	$23,780	$43,490	—	1,533
Mexico	$36,830	$43,465	2,182	2,137
Serbia	$25,178	$41,459	—	—
Costa Rica	$24,598	$41,435	—	2,069
Botswana	$21,760	$41,206	—	—
Fiji	$19,829	$39,709	—	—
Guyana	$9,622	$39,609	—	—
South Africa	$30,178	$39,377	—	2,191
North Macedonia	$13,605	$38,287	—	—
Suriname	$30,932	$38,117	—	—
Dominican Republic	$17,310	$37,551	—	2,142
Palestine	$13,912	$36,807	—	—
Tunisia	$22,482	$35,177	—	—
Ukraine	$24,527	$35,050	—	—
Sri Lanka	$11,537	$34,643	1,896	1,923
Albania	$9,136	$33,556	—	—
Colombia	$24,026	$33,381	2,170	1,968
Brazil	$15,488	$32,782	2,145	1,708
Thailand	$11,677	$31,745	2,455	2,093
Azerbaijan	$19,606	$31,697	—	—
Namibia	$18,812	$31,431	—	—
Saint Lucia	$28,305	$31,093	—	—
Montserrat	$101,199	$30,629	—	—
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	$21,775	$30,339	—	—
Eswatini	$29,765	$28,757	—	—
Uzbekistan	$16,339	$28,361	—	—
Bhutan	$7,886	$28,047	—	—
Mongolia	$11,844	$27,882	—	—
Grenada	$18,874	$27,077	—	—
Moldova	$13,420	$26,708	—	—
Barbados	$39,219	$26,514	—	—
Syria	$5,511	$25,853	—	—
Paraguay	$14,317	$25,843	—	—
China	$4,325	$25,360	1,976	2,169
Morocco	$14,940	$25,082	—	—
Indonesia	$8,494	$23,923	1,893	2,020
Ecuador	$18,964	$23,671	—	1,552
Peru	$10,576	$23,553	2,277	2,140
Philippines	$11,537	$21,530	2,113	2,168
Jamaica	$14,265	$19,975	—	—
Guatemala	$11,903	$19,258	—	—
Cabo Verde	$7,180	$18,847	—	—
Mauritania	$12,658	$18,744	—	—
India	$3,616	$18,429	2,077	2,123
Bolivia	$5,545	$17,828	—	—
Sudan	$8,939	$17,548	—	—
El Salvador	$3,335	$17,415	—	—
Pakistan	$10,436	$17,255	2,242	1,967
Côte d’Ivoire	$7,563	$17,242	—	—
Djibouti	$9,069	$16,029	—	—
Laos	$3,138	$15,028	—	—
Kyrgyzstan	$20,813	$14,741	—	—
Vietnam	$2,933	$14,368	2,987	2,132
Honduras	$11,168	$13,800	—	—
Belize	$23,106	$13,796	—	—
Nigeria	$3,094	$13,716	—	—
Angola	$5,398	$13,689	—	—
Comoros	$18,530	$13,558	—	—
Tajikistan	$19,405	$13,529	—	—
São Tomé and Príncipe	$7,017	$12,599	—	—
Myanmar	$2,071	$12,597	2,447	2,447
Republic of the Congo	$9,501	$12,433	—	—
Nicaragua	$13,154	$12,352	—	—
Ghana	$6,856	$12,340	—	—
Bangladesh	$4,915	$11,589	2,521	2,419
Zambia	$4,508	$10,867	—	—
Yemen	$4,465	$9,369	—	—
Cameroon	$6,463	$9,116	—	—
Benin	$3,831	$8,905	—	—
Kenya	$6,059	$8,883	—	—
Senegal	$8,320	$8,616	—	—
Lesotho	$6,917	$8,589	—	—
Cambodia	$2,727	$8,497	—	2,475
Gambia	$7,674	$8,213	—	—
Mali	$2,470	$7,819	—	—
Nepal	$2,891	$6,636	—	—
Guinea	$9,309	$6,240	—	—
Burkina Faso	$2,488	$6,191	—	—
Uganda	$3,337	$5,979	—	—
Zimbabwe	$12,104	$5,977	—	—
Sierra Leone	$4,619	$5,778	—	—
Togo	$4,752	$5,695	—	—
Tanzania	$2,540	$5,618	—	—
Rwanda	$2,617	$5,457	—	—
Ethiopia	$1,829	$5,252	—	—
Guinea-Bissau	$4,445	$4,557	—	—
Chad	$3,125	$4,325	—	—
Haiti	$4,486	$3,860	—	—
Democratic Republic of the Congo	$4,442	$3,527	—	—
Mozambique	$1,691	$3,387	—	—
Liberia	$3,014	$3,238	—	—
Niger	$2,919	$3,182	—	—
Madagascar	$3,206	$2,977	—	—
Malawi	$2,578	$2,721	—	—
Central African Republic	$3,072	$2,517	—	—
Burundi	$2,150	$1,821	—	—
Venezuela	$26,035	$612	1,951	—

Every country

All 236, by the year they peak

Every country: the year its working-age population is at its highest, its size, and the years with fewer than 50 dependants per 100
Country or area	Peak year	Aged 15–64 at the peak	Aged 15–64 in 2023	Dependants per 100, 2023	Years below 50
Niue	1951	2,543	1,104	65	15
Hungary	1973	7,054,230	6,266,700	55	38
Bulgaria	1985	6,004,460	4,324,130	57	41
Serbia	1985	5,517,170	4,288,200	58	51
Montserrat	1986	6,691	2,829	56	14
Georgia	1988	3,624,100	2,423,150	57	8
Latvia	1989	1,781,030	1,185,460	59	37
Croatia	1990	3,316,950	2,456,290	59	44
Lithuania	1990	2,460,200	1,862,490	53	17
Estonia	1990	1,038,370	862,942	58	13
Saint Helena	1990	4,321	3,167	67	17
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1991	3,068,740	2,074,680	54	35
Moldova	1991	2,843,900	1,974,980	55	18
Armenia	1991	2,322,500	1,979,240	49	21
Italy	1992	39,465,500	37,863,500	57	20
Ukraine	1992	34,602,600	25,336,400	49	60
Albania	1992	2,041,520	1,874,140	50	14
Saint Pierre and Miquelon	1992	4,400	3,741	52	27
Romania	1993	15,310,400	12,306,600	55	27
Japan	1995	87,597,100	73,116,300	70	41
Germany	1997	56,249,100	53,514,300	58	35
Kosovo	1997	1,371,900	1,174,070	45	25
Guadeloupe	1998	274,328	227,486	66
Martinique	1999	276,515	209,539	65
Northern Mariana Islands	2000	51,535	31,005	46	45
Belarus	2001	6,787,830	6,040,300	51	32
Puerto Rico	2001	2,468,300	2,066,830	57
US Virgin Islands	2003	71,347	52,481	63
Wallis and Futuna	2003	9,184	7,354	55	6
Palau	2005	13,974	12,517	42	42
North Macedonia	2006	1,428,820	1,198,560	53	20
Marshall Islands	2007	30,641	23,651	64	21
Cuba	2008	7,877,450	7,525,560	46	43
Czechia	2008	7,369,570	6,894,490	57	25
Portugal	2008	7,036,460	6,570,830	59	16
Spain	2009	31,974,800	31,663,600	51	24
Greece	2009	7,384,980	6,445,880	59	19
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	2009	72,515	67,674	50	22
Andorra	2009	61,221	58,487	38	60
Russia	2010	103,817,000	95,816,700	52	52
Poland	2010	27,183,300	25,328,500	53	23
Slovakia	2010	3,887,020	3,644,230	51	26
Finland	2010	3,549,650	3,444,010	63	34
Slovenia	2010	1,420,890	1,350,220	57	33
Bermuda	2010	44,545	42,190	53	45
Guernsey	2010	41,590	41,297	55	27
France	2011	41,045,400	40,837,300	63
Isle of Man	2011	55,215	52,826	59
Montenegro	2012	428,895	406,748	56	18
Greenland	2012	40,332	38,630	45	47
American Samoa	2012	33,984	30,860	54	6
Cook Islands	2012	11,500	8,861	61	8
Taiwan	2013	17,429,300	16,258,500	43	39
Hong Kong	2014	5,387,850	5,035,440	48	48
Saint Martin	2014	24,893	16,967	62	28
China	2015	1,000,030,000	982,925,000	45	41
Mauritius	2015	933,777	916,145	39	43
Réunion	2015	563,050	559,089	56	3
Dominica	2015	48,357	45,990	45	37
Saint Kitts and Nevis	2016	33,869	33,184	41	41
South Korea	2017	37,641,900	36,583,300	41	43
Barbados	2017	190,028	187,527	51	22
Aruba	2017	72,357	71,721	50	34
Thailand	2018	50,873,400	50,329,400	42	42
Singapore	2019	4,354,900	4,348,600	33	63
Trinidad and Tobago	2019	1,058,970	1,053,840	43	45
Curaçao	2019	131,480	126,972	46	28
Anguilla	2019	10,701	10,188	41	32
San Marino	2020	23,174	22,136	52	38
Falkland Islands	2020	2,567	2,505	39	62
North Korea	2021	18,273,600	18,226,100	45	45
Liechtenstein	2022	25,936	25,933	53	43
Austria	2023	5,983,480	5,983,480	53	36
Jersey	2023	69,278	69,278	50	64
Belgium	2024	7,447,750	7,445,180	57	14
Switzerland	2024	5,801,980	5,799,360	53	39
Jamaica	2024	2,075,100	2,073,150	37	44
Macao	2024	517,302	517,058	38	59
Saint Lucia	2025	131,132	130,576	37	42
Turks and Caicos Islands	2025	33,898	33,671	37	44
Netherlands	2026	11,783,300	11,700,800	55	30
Denmark	2026	3,803,280	3,779,020	57	14
Antigua and Barbuda	2026	66,133	65,829	42	28
French Polynesia	2027	197,046	195,493	44	29
British Virgin Islands	2027	30,202	29,496	32	55
Norway	2029	3,680,200	3,585,220	54
Bahamas	2029	285,892	280,302	43	32
Seychelles	2030	99,037	91,522	40	42
Grenada	2030	80,489	79,947	46	38
Chile	2032	13,899,800	13,549,300	45	34
Uruguay	2032	2,247,000	2,219,250	53	2
Brazil	2033	147,808,000	146,596,000	44	36
Malta	2033	366,254	357,337	49	35
Costa Rica	2034	3,621,180	3,520,270	45	33
Argentina	2035	32,664,100	29,876,100	52	18
Türkiye	2036	61,953,900	59,482,900	47	32
Ireland	2036	3,692,950	3,400,740	53	12
Vietnam	2037	72,399,700	68,011,700	48	34
Tunisia	2037	8,749,930	8,100,940	51	31
Sweden	2037	6,865,240	6,564,480	61
Iran	2038	69,263,300	62,742,100	44	43
Maldives	2038	427,444	397,682	32	42
Brunei	2038	351,462	332,575	38	47
Saint Barthélemy	2038	8,180	6,939	60	43
Azerbaijan	2039	7,553,140	7,186,120	44	43
Cabo Verde	2039	400,476	350,221	49	30
Sri Lanka	2040	15,828,300	15,138,300	52	14
Cyprus	2040	984,772	936,410	44	40
Iceland	2040	276,986	258,096	50	9
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba	2040	22,612	20,909	43	30
Bhutan	2041	632,284	567,532	39	42
Colombia	2042	39,366,800	36,638,800	43	34
El Salvador	2042	4,562,770	4,214,150	50	34
Myanmar	2043	39,878,600	37,024,900	46	45
Luxembourg	2043	485,272	459,409	45	68
United Kingdom	2044	45,767,900	43,512,500	58	1
Indonesia	2045	210,928,000	191,257,000	47	31
Morocco	2045	28,274,100	24,942,700	51	12
New Zealand	2046	3,504,210	3,353,380	54
Fiji	2046	679,541	612,446	51	46
New Caledonia	2046	209,068	195,324	48	17
Mexico	2047	97,798,300	87,049,400	49	22
Malaysia	2047	29,757,300	24,680,000	42	41
India	2048	1,135,200,000	978,191,000	47	35
Ecuador	2048	14,043,000	12,029,100	49	24
Sint Maarten	2048	31,684	30,349	41	49
Peru	2049	26,267,300	22,557,900	50	15
Belize	2051	356,286	280,234	47	37
Dominican Republic	2052	8,516,380	7,422,560	53
Philippines	2053	93,226,300	75,977,900	51	41
Gibraltar	2055	29,931	24,905	54	10
Bangladesh	2056	144,600,000	112,000,000	53	16
Nepal	2056	24,312,400	19,279,500	54	35
Nicaragua	2056	5,909,400	4,463,790	53	24
Guyana	2056	635,766	530,496	56	7
Laos	2058	6,773,510	4,975,110	54	32
Suriname	2058	483,844	417,782	51
Syria	2061	27,844,300	15,331,200	54	24
Guatemala	2061	17,567,500	11,441,800	58	30
Panama	2061	3,600,050	2,927,940	52
Venezuela	2062	20,324,900	18,257,600	55
Micronesia	2062	88,708	69,988	61	24
Lebanon	2063	4,699,730	3,663,840	58	8
Eswatini	2063	1,044,330	765,180	61	41
Timor-Leste	2064	1,413,270	836,608	65	37
Faroe Islands	2064	38,474	33,987	61
Libya	2066	6,248,150	4,906,530	49	22
Cambodia	2069	15,052,700	11,138,800	56	4
Haiti	2069	10,492,600	7,425,780	57	39
Tonga	2071	74,118	60,430	73	7
Algeria	2072	40,679,200	29,076,000	59	15
Bolivia	2073	11,500,700	7,873,870	56	22
Turkmenistan	2073	6,758,350	4,717,450	56	18
Paraguay	2073	5,828,540	4,438,410	54	7
Mongolia	2074	3,376,920	2,144,920	60	19
Lesotho	2074	2,229,870	1,415,770	63	46
Western Sahara	2074	530,910	407,438	42	45
Honduras	2075	10,659,800	6,888,400	55	24
Guam	2075	124,916	103,006	62	4
Kyrgyzstan	2078	7,267,740	4,378,600	62
Botswana	2079	2,529,560	1,581,130	57	22
Cayman Islands	2083	67,668	54,899	33	56
Tokelau	2085	2,650	1,567	53
Palestine	2086	6,879,750	3,128,000	73
Sierra Leone	2087	10,631,000	4,929,230	72	34
Uganda	2089	76,245,500	26,231,400	85
Gambia	2089	3,677,330	1,518,650	78	24
Kenya	2090	68,537,100	33,003,900	68	21
Djibouti	2090	1,169,330	757,364	52	39
Egypt	2093	124,517,000	71,693,900	60
South Sudan	2093	16,104,700	6,572,630	75	45
Tajikistan	2094	12,700,100	6,217,640	67
Nigeria	2096	321,718,000	126,429,000	80	43
Burkina Faso	2096	32,874,600	12,659,100	82	23
Jordan	2096	12,590,200	7,372,740	55	4
Namibia	2096	3,751,310	1,752,270	69
Kiribati	2096	144,714	80,781	64
Papua New Guinea	2097	12,210,100	6,529,620	59	25
Pakistan	2099	327,908,000	145,448,000	70
Iraq	2099	62,938,300	26,824,400	68
Zimbabwe	2099	23,966,000	8,996,990	82
Democratic Republic of the Congo	after 2100	283,561,000	53,787,000	97
United States	after 2100	240,945,000	223,169,000	54	20
Ethiopia	after 2100	233,056,000	73,950,200	74
Tanzania	after 2100	167,200,000	36,128,700	84
Angola	after 2100	98,187,300	19,336,400	90
Sudan	after 2100	86,815,100	28,093,500	78
Afghanistan	after 2100	84,425,100	22,549,800	84
Yemen	after 2100	70,894,100	22,163,800	78	5
Mozambique	after 2100	69,033,000	17,651,200	91	21
Côte d’Ivoire	after 2100	68,622,200	17,501,200	78
Niger	after 2100	60,049,100	13,201,100	98	19
South Africa	after 2100	59,732,800	42,605,200	48	33
Cameroon	after 2100	57,353,800	15,736,800	80
Madagascar	after 2100	55,652,200	17,810,600	75
Mali	after 2100	52,670,700	12,154,200	96	6
Saudi Arabia	after 2100	46,833,300	24,310,600	37	88
Uzbekistan	after 2100	46,298,800	22,615,600	58	5
Chad	after 2100	46,101,900	9,889,050	95
Somalia	after 2100	44,625,900	9,318,230	97
Ghana	after 2100	43,158,900	20,336,700	66
Zambia	after 2100	41,427,700	11,635,700	78
Malawi	after 2100	37,732,100	11,837,800	78
Canada	after 2100	30,174,800	25,677,000	53	41
Senegal	after 2100	29,328,800	10,445,200	73
Benin	after 2100	25,990,300	7,771,770	82
Burundi	after 2100	24,784,000	7,135,620	92
Australia	after 2100	24,543,400	17,083,600	55	23
Guinea	after 2100	20,960,400	7,968,530	81
Rwanda	after 2100	20,718,900	8,155,940	71
Kazakhstan	after 2100	20,325,000	12,635,700	61	12
United Arab Emirates	after 2100	18,322,300	8,722,830	22	133
Togo	after 2100	17,141,200	5,299,160	76
Republic of the Congo	after 2100	12,869,500	3,474,890	78
Central African Republic	after 2100	12,517,100	2,511,200	105	23
Israel	after 2100	11,593,600	5,550,980	67
Mauritania	after 2100	10,835,000	2,699,490	86
Liberia	after 2100	8,373,090	3,115,960	76	23
Oman	after 2100	8,087,960	3,641,120	39	94
Kuwait	after 2100	6,896,830	3,795,750	27	103
Eritrea	after 2100	5,249,570	1,984,080	75
Qatar	after 2100	5,200,800	2,480,600	20	122
Gabon	after 2100	4,430,840	1,473,380	69
Equatorial Guinea	after 2100	3,313,930	1,088,060	70	27
Guinea-Bissau	after 2100	3,027,510	1,240,650	74	11
Bahrain	after 2100	2,102,250	1,214,450	29	103
Comoros	after 2100	1,218,450	494,294	72
Solomon Islands	after 2100	1,168,290	472,086	69
Mayotte	after 2100	849,096	169,938	86
Vanuatu	after 2100	546,300	183,172	75
French Guiana	after 2100	466,682	187,981	61
São Tomé and Príncipe	after 2100	333,590	133,564	73
Samoa	after 2100	243,368	120,392	80
Monaco	after 2100	26,726	19,659	98	10
Nauru	after 2100	13,873	7,023	69	39
Tuvalu	after 2100	7,891	6,000	64	15

How to read this: the countries are in the order they reach their peak, earliest first. "After 2100" means the count ends before the peak does.

Back to the count

How this rests on the census

Everything on this page is one slice of the UN's count of people by age. In mid-2025 that slice was 5.37 billion people aged 15 to 64 — 65 of every 100 people alive.

020406080100+

aged 15–64 everyone else

How to read this: one column for each year of age, from newborn babies on the left to people aged 100 and over on the right. The taller the column, the more people of that age were alive in mid-2025 — 8.23 billion in all, counted by the UN.

Whether it grows or shrinks is decided mostly by births 15 to 64 years earlier: a large generation of babies becomes a large generation of workers fifteen years later, and a large generation of older people fifty years after that. Migration and deaths change it only at the edges.

Questions

Questions people ask

What ages count as working age?

15 to 64. It is a convention the UN uses for every country, so they can be compared. It does not count jobs.

When will the world have the most working-age people?

In the UN's projection, in 2070, at about 6.29 billion. After that the number falls for the first time ever. It is a projection, not a count, and it can change.

Which countries already have fewer working-age people than before?

74 of 236 countries and areas had passed their peak by 2023, among them Japan (1995), Germany (1997) and China (2015). 55 are still rising in 2100.

What is the dependency ratio?

The number of children under 15 and people aged 65 and over for every 100 people aged 15 to 64. In 2023 the world's was 54.

What is the demographic dividend?

The years when a country has fewer than 50 dependants for every 100 people of working age. It usually comes once, after birth rates fall and before the population grows old.

Does this count people who are unemployed, studying or retired?

In the working-age sections, yes — everyone aged 15 to 64 is counted, whatever they do. The sections on people in work count only those working or looking for work, from the ILO’s estimates.

How many people in the world work?

About 3.76 billion people aged 15 and over were working or looking for work in 2024: 1.51 billion women and 2.25 billion men.

Why are fewer women counted as working?

In 2024, 49 of every 100 women aged 15 and over were in work or looking for it, against 73 of every 100 men. Much of the work women do — caring for children and relatives, farming and cooking for the family — is unpaid and is not in this count.

Apparatus

Sources and method

Every figure on this page is the United Nations' own: estimates to 2023, then the medium projection. The ratios are recomputed here from the three population counts and checked against the UN's own published ratios before the page is built.

What "working age" means here

Ages 15 to 64, and nothing else. It does not mean employed: students, people who retired early, people at home with children and people who cannot find work are all inside it, and someone working at 70 is outside it. Where a country's school-leaving or pension age differs — and most do — the band fits roughly at both ends. It is used because it is the one definition every country's data shares.

Dependants

Children are everyone under 15, older people everyone 65 and over, counted per 100 people aged 15–64. Nobody here is a burden: the word is only arithmetic about ages.

Method for the sections on people in work: the International Labour Organization estimates, for every country and year, how many of every 100 women and men aged 15 and over are working or looking for work (a model that fills the years between surveys; published by the World Bank). The number of people is our own: that share × the UN's count of women (men) aged 15 and over in the same place and year. Our world total agrees with the World Bank's to within 2%. School-age children are the UN's count of everyone aged 5 to 17. Output per worker and hours are from the Penn World Table 10.0: a country's output (in dollars of 2017, adjusted for prices) divided by the people working there; it ends in 2019.

Sources: UN WPP 2024 · Penn World Table 10.0 · World Bank · flag-icons. Every source, its licence and how to cite it →

Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries