Approximately 41 million people immigrated to the United States of America between the years 1820 and 1957. During this time period, the United States expanded across North America, growing from 23 to 48 states, and the population grew from approximately 10 million people in 1820, to almost 180 million people by 1957. Economically, the U.S. developed from being an agriculturally focused economy in the 1820s, to having the highest GDP of any single country in the 1950s. Much of this expansion was due to the high numbers of agricultural workers who migrated from Europe, as technological advances in agriculture had lowered the labor demand. The majority of these migrants settled in urban centers, and this fueled the growth of the industrial sector.

American industrialization and European rural unemployment fuel migration The first major wave of migration came in the 1850s, and was fueled largely by Irish and German migrants, who were fleeing famine or agricultural depression at the time. The second boom came in the 1870s, as the country recovered from the American Civil War, and the Second Industrial Revolution took off. The final boom of the nineteenth century came in the 1880s, as poor harvests and industrialization in Europe led to mass emigration. Improvements in steam ship technology and lower fares led to increased migration from Eastern and Southern Europe at the turn of the century (particularly from Italy). War and depression reduces migration Migration to the U.S. peaked at the beginning of the 20th century, before it fluctuated greatly at the beginning of the 20th century. This was not only due to the disruptions to life in Europe caused by the world wars, but also the economic disruption of the Great Depression in the 1930s. The only period between 1914 and 1950 where migration was high was during the 1920s. However, the migration rate rose again in the late 1940s, particularly from Latin America and Asia. The historically high levels of migration from Europe has meant that the most common ethnicity in the U.S. has been non-Hispanic White since the early-colonial period, however increased migration from Latin America, Asia and Africa, and higher fertility rates among ethnic minorities, have seen the Whites' share of the total population fall in recent years (although it is still over three times larger than any other group.

This graph shows the distribution of nationalities among documented immigrants who arrived in the United States between 1820 and 1870. As we can see, over seven million people arrived in the US in this 50 year period, with the majority coming from Ireland, Germany and Britain. The largest groups, by far, were Irish and German, who together made up roughly two thirds of all immigrants to the US during this time. The reasons for this were because of the Irish Potato famine from 1845 to 1849, which resulted in the death or emigration of twenty to twenty five percent of the total Irish population, and a number of internal factors in Germany such as economic migration for farmers affected by industrialization, political/religious asylum, and in order to avoid conscription. One noteworthy exclusion from the information is of those transported to US as slaves, whose information was not recorded in this statistic (although the slave trade was abolished in 1808, the practice continued in the decades that followed).

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the majority of documented migration to the United States of American came from European countries. Between 1820 and 1957, of the approximate 41 million migrants to the US, over 34 million of these came from Europe. The most commonly documented countries of origin during this time were Germany (6.6 million), Italy (4.9 million), Ireland (4.6 million), Great Britain (4.5 million), and Russia (3.4 million). The first wave of mass migration came in the 1850s, as the Great famine crippled Ireland's population, and many in rural areas of mainland Europe struggled to adapt to industrialization, and economic opportunities attracted many in the 1870s, following the American Civil War. The 1880s saw another wave, as steam powered ships and lower fares made trans-Atlantic journeys much more affordable. The first wave of mass migration from Eastern and Southern Europe also arrived at this time, as industrialization and agricultural advancements led to high unemployment in these regions.

The majority of migrants to the United States settled in major urban centers, which allowed the expansion of industry, leading to the United States' emergence as one of the leading global economies at the turn of the twentieth century. The largest wave of migration to the United states during this period came in the first fifteen years of the 1900s. The influx of migrants from Northern and Western Europe had now been replaced by an influx from Eastern and Southern Europe (although migration from the British Isles was still quite high during this time). European migration fell to it's lowest levels in eighty years during the First World War, before fluctuating again in the interwar period, due to the Great Depression. As the twentieth century progressed, the continent with the highest levels of migration to the US gradually changed from Europe to Latin America, as economic opportunities in Western Europe improved, and the US' relationship with the Soviet Union and other Eastern, communist states became complicated.

Between 1820 and 1957, more than six million people emigrated from Germany to the United States. The period with the highest levels of migration came during the 1850s and the 1880s, and over 250 thousand documented migrants came to the US from Germany in 1882 alone. The reasons for these mass migrations were not linked to individual events, but were because of the improved access to trans-Atlantic travel, poor economic opportunities at home (particularly for farmers, who struggled with the rapid industrialization of Germany), and to escape religious persecution in Europe. The periods with the lowest levels of migration from Germany were between 1915 and 1945, and were likely caused by the First and Second World Wars, and also the Great Depression.

Between 1820 and 1957, over 4.5 million people emigrated from Great Britain to the United States. The period with the highest levels of migration came during the 1860s, 70s and 80s, with almost 110 thousand people migrating in 1888 alone. The period with the lowest levels of migration came in the 1930s and early 40s, as the Great Depression caused an economic crisis across the globe, hitting the US and Great Britain particularly hard. Economic recovery in the late 1930s caused the migration rate to increase again, before the Second World War brought the numbers back down in the first half of the 1940s.

These indexes were created from the Registers of immigrant ships’ arrivals in Queensland ports as kept and used by the Immigration Department from 1848 to 1912. The records are held at Queensland State Archives.

In the past four centuries, the population of the Thirteen Colonies and United States of America has grown from a recorded 350 people around the Jamestown colony in Virginia in 1610, to an estimated 346 million in 2025. While the fertility rate has now dropped well below replacement level, and the population is on track to go into a natural decline in the 2040s, projected high net immigration rates mean the population will continue growing well into the next century, crossing the 400 million mark in the 2070s. Indigenous population Early population figures for the Thirteen Colonies and United States come with certain caveats. Official records excluded the indigenous population, and they generally remained excluded until the late 1800s. In 1500, in the first decade of European colonization of the Americas, the native population living within the modern U.S. borders was believed to be around 1.9 million people. The spread of Old World diseases, such as smallpox, measles, and influenza, to biologically defenseless populations in the New World then wreaked havoc across the continent, often wiping out large portions of the population in areas that had not yet made contact with Europeans. By the time of Jamestown's founding in 1607, it is believed the native population within current U.S. borders had dropped by almost 60 percent. As the U.S. expanded, indigenous populations were largely still excluded from population figures as they were driven westward, however taxpaying Natives were included in the census from 1870 to 1890, before all were included thereafter. It should be noted that estimates for indigenous populations in the Americas vary significantly by source and time period. Migration and expansion fuels population growth The arrival of European settlers and African slaves was the key driver of population growth in North America in the 17th century. Settlers from Britain were the dominant group in the Thirteen Colonies, before settlers from elsewhere in Europe, particularly Germany and Ireland, made a large impact in the mid-19th century. By the end of the 19th century, improvements in transport technology and increasing economic opportunities saw migration to the United States increase further, particularly from southern and Eastern Europe, and in the first decade of the 1900s the number of migrants to the U.S. exceeded one million people in some years. It is also estimated that almost 400,000 African slaves were transported directly across the Atlantic to mainland North America between 1500 and 1866 (although the importation of slaves was abolished in 1808). Blacks made up a much larger share of the population before slavery's abolition. Twentieth and twenty-first century The U.S. population has grown steadily since 1900, reaching one hundred million in the 1910s, two hundred million in the 1960s, and three hundred million in 2007. Since WWII, the U.S. has established itself as the world's foremost superpower, with the world's largest economy, and most powerful military. This growth in prosperity has been accompanied by increases in living standards, particularly through medical advances, infrastructure improvements, clean water accessibility. These have all contributed to higher infant and child survival rates, as well as an increase in life expectancy (doubling from roughly 40 to 80 years in the past 150 years), which have also played a large part in population growth. As fertility rates decline and increases in life expectancy slows, migration remains the largest factor in population growth. Since the 1960s, Latin America has now become the most common origin for migrants in the U.S., while immigration rates from Asia have also increased significantly. It remains to be seen how immigration restrictions of the current administration affect long-term population projections for the United States.

This series consists of registers, kept by the Immigration Agent, Maryborough, of immigrants arriving at Maryborough. The registers are not arranged consistently but all include names of ships, passenger lists and arrival dates. IMA3/4 - 5 include agreements with employers; IMA3/7 -10 may include the country of origin of the passengers and where they have gone after leaving the depot.

While the European colonization and settlement of other world regions largely began in the 16th and 17th centuries, it was not until the 19th century when the largest waves of migration began to take place. In early years, migration rates were comparatively low; in all of the Americas, the slave population actually outnumbered that of Europeans for most of the given period. Then, with the development of steam ships, intercontinental travel became more affordable and accessible to the masses, and voluntary migration from Europe rose significantly. Additionally, larger numbers of Asian migrants, especially from India and China, migrated to Australia, the Caribbean, and U.S. from the mid-1800s; although the U.S. and Australia both introduced policies that limited or prevented Asian immigration throughout most of the early 1900s. International migration between 1913 and 1950 was also comparatively low due to the tumultuous nature of the period, which involved both World Wars and the Great Depression.

Between 1820 and 1957, approximately 3.8 million people migrated from Eastern Europe and Russia (which officially became the Soviet Union in 1922) to the United States. Although migration from Western Europe to the US had already increased significantly in the early 1800s, it was not until the 1870s that Eastern Europeans began to migrate in mass. The period with the highest rate of migration was between the turn of the twentieth century and the Russian Revolution, before it dropped drastically, and despite a small resurgence in the early 1920s, the numbers from both regions remained below one thousand migrants per year from before the Second World War and well into the Cold War.

Migration from Asia to the United States was very slow until the 1850s, however an influx of Chinese migrants brought the numbers up drastically during the California Gold Rush in the mid-nineteenth century. Migration from Asia reached its highest level in 1882, where there were almost 40,000 Asians documented as arriving in the United States in this year alone. As gold became scarcer across the continent, animosity towards the Chinese increased among white Americans, and the Chinese Expulsion Act was introduced in 1882. Following this legislation, there was a sharp decrease in the amount of Asian migrants arriving in the US, and it fell below 200 people in 1885. At the turn of the twentieth century, migration from Asia increased again, reaching a new high of 40,500 people in 1907, as higher numbers of Japanese and Turkish people emigrated to North America. There was another decrease during the First World War, and again during the Great Depression and Second World War (particularly from Japan). Following the Second World War, Asian migration rates increased again, from all areas of the continent.

It is presumed that the first humans migrated from Siberia to North America approximately twelve thousand years ago, where they then moved southwards to warmer lands. It was not until many centuries later that humans returned to the north and began to settle regions that are now part of Canada. Despite a few short-lived Viking settlements on Newfoundland around the turn of the first millennium CE, the Italian explorer Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot), became the first European to explore the coast of North America in the late 1400s. The French and British crowns both made claims to areas of Canada throughout the sixteenth century, but real colonization and settlement did not begin until the early seventeenth century. Over the next 150 years, France and Britain competed to take control of the booming fur and fishing trade, and to expand their overseas empires. In the Seven Year's War, Britain eventually defeated the French colonists in North America, through superior numbers and a stronger agriculture resources in the southern colonies, and the outcome of the war saw France cede practically all of it's colonies in North America to the British.

Increased migration and declining native populations

The early 1800s saw a large influx of migrants into Canada, with the Irish Potato Famine bringing the first wave of mass-migration to the country, with further migration coming from Scandinavia and Northern Europe. It is estimated that the region received just shy of one million migrants from the British Isles alone, between 1815 and 1850, which helped the population grow to 2.5 million in the mid-1800s and 5.5 million in 1900. It is also estimated that infectious diseases killed around 25 to 33 percent of all Europeans who migrated to Canada before 1891, and around a third of the Canadian population is estimated to have emigrated southwards to the United States in the 1871-1896 period. From the time of European colonization until the mid-nineteenth century, the native population of Canada dropped from roughly 500,000 (some estimates put it as high as two million) to just over 100,000; this was due to a mixture of disease, starvation and warfare, instigated by European migration to the region. The native population was generally segregated and oppressed until the second half of the 1900s; Native Canadians were given the vote in 1960, and, despite their complicated and difficult history, the Canadian government has made significant progress in trying to include indigenous cultures in the country's national identity in recent years. As of 2020, Indigenous Canadians make up more than five percent of the total Canadian population, and a higher birth rate means that this share of the population is expected to grow in the coming decades.

Independence and modern Canada

Canadian independence was finally acknowledged in 1931 by the Statute of Westminster, putting it on equal terms with the United Kingdom within the Commonwealth; virtually granting independence and sovereignty until the Canada Act of 1982 formalized it. Over the past century, Canada has had a relatively stable political system and economy (although it was hit particularly badly by the Wall Street Crash of 1929). Canada entered the First World War with Britain, and as an independent Allied Power in the Second World War; Canadian forces played pivotal roles in a number of campaigns, notably Canada's Hundred Days in WWI, and the country lost more than 100,000 men across both conflicts. The economy boomed in the aftermath of the Second World War, and a stream of socially democratic programs such as universal health care and the Canadian pension plan were introduced, which contributed to a rise in the standard of living. The post war period also saw various territories deciding to join Canada, with Newfoundland joining in 1949, and Nunavut in 1999. Today Canada is among the most highly ranked in countries in terms of civil liberties, quality of life and economic growth. It promotes and welcomes immigrants from all over the world and, as a result, it has one of the most ethnically diverse and multicultural populations of any country in the world. As of 2020, Canada's population stands at around 38 million people, and continues to grow due to high migration levels and life expectancy, and a steady birth rate.

New York was the most populous state in the union in the year 1900. It had the largest white population, for both native born and foreign born persons, and together these groups made up over 7.1 million of New York's 7.2 million inhabitants at this time. The United States' industrial centers to the north and northeast were one of the most important economic draws during this period, and states in these regions had the largest foreign born white populations. Ethnic minorities Immigration into the agricultural southern states was much lower than the north, and these states had the largest Black populations due to the legacy of slavery - this balance would begin to shift in the following decades as a large share of the Black population migrated to urban centers to the north during the Great Migration. The Japanese and Chinese populations at this time were more concentrated in the West, as these states were the most common point of entry for Asians into the country. The states with the largest Native American populations were to the west and southwest, due to the legacy of forced displacement - this included the Indian Territory, an unorganized and independent territory assigned to the Native American population in the early 1800s, although this was incorporated into Oklahoma when it was admitted into the union in 1907. Additionally, non-taxpaying Native Americans were historically omitted from the U.S. Census, as they usually lived in separate communities and could not vote or hold office - more of an effort was made to count all Native Americans from 1890 onward, although there are likely inaccuracies in the figures given here. Changing distribution Internal migration in the 20th century greatly changed population distribution across the country, with California and Florida now ranking among the three most populous states in the U.S. today, while they were outside the top 20 in 1900. The growth of Western states' populations was largely due to the wave of internal migration during the Great Depression, where unemployment in the east saw many emigrate to "newer" states in search of opportunity, as well as significant immigration from Latin America (especially Mexico) and Asia since the mid-1900s.

Much of Argentina's modern society and culture is rooted in the Spanish Empire's colonization of the region in the 16th century, along with the influx of European migration to the country around the turn of the twentieth century. There are records of human presence in the region dating back to the paleolithic period (3.3 million to 9,650 BCE) and the Incan Empire is known to have extended into the region before Columbus' arrival in the Americas in 1492; however most of this culture and civilization was wiped out by Europeans in the 1500s. During Spanish colonization, the majority of Argentina was a part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (which also included territories in modern-day Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay) and was still economically bound to the Spanish crown. With a population of just 0.5 million in 1800, a combination of mass migration (particularly from Southern Europe) and high birth rates have helped Argentina's population grow above 45 million over the past two centuries.

Independence, Immigration and the Gold rush The age of enlightenment and revolutions in Europe inspired a longing in the region for independence, and Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808 was the catalyst for the Spanish Empire's downfall in the Americas, with Argentinian independence declared in 1816. The Spanish military was then defeated in mid 1800s, but for the majority of the next century there was little political or economic stability in the region, with several small-scale civil wars between the different Argentinian states. Starting with the government of Julio Argentino Roca in 1880, ten consecutive federal governments actively pursued a liberal economic policy which led to a massive wave of state-promoted European immigration; so much so that the number of migrants received by Argentina in that period was second only to the United States worldwide. This immigration led to the rejuvenation and reinvention of Argentinian society and economy to such an extent, that by 1908 the country had the seventh largest economy in the world. This in turn led to further immigration and higher standards of living. It is also worth noting that the Tierra del Fuego gold rush that started around 1883 and lasted to around 1906 also contributed greatly to immigration. Unfortunately, Argentina was unable to retain it's acquired economic might; it failed to develop industrially at the same speed as the rest of the world, and the Great Depression of 1929 set in motion an economic decline that contributed to much civil and political unrest.

The impact of Perón, and modern Argentina
The election of Juan Perón in 1946 proved to be a defining point in Argentina's history; Perón was a demagogue who imprisoned (and reportedly tortured) his rivals and critics, and whose isolationist policies and radical spending contributed to severe inflation. With the death of Perón's extremely popular wife, Eva Duarte, in 1952, his popularity declined and he was eventually exiled following a coup in 1955. Despite this exile, Perón returned in 1973 and re-assumed the presidency, until his death in 1974, where he was the succeeded by his third wife. Peron's political philosophy, known as "Peronism", is a mixture of right wing nationalist and left wing populist theories; although Peronism has developed greatly over time, its core belief system is the foundation of Argentina's largest party, the Justicialist Party (although they have become increasingly left wing since the Kirchner administrations).

With the expulsion of Perón in 1955, Argentina's trend of military coups and failed governments continued, and the country faced further economic instability. Despite all of this, medical advancements and improvements to quality of life across the globe helped Argentina's mortality rate to decline, and the population grew at a faster rate than ever before. In April 1982, Argentine forces invaded the British territory of the Falkland Islands, leading to a ten week war between the nations, that ended with Argentina's surrender in June. The war had a relatively small death toll, but contributed to riots in Buenos Aires, which helped to topple the military dictatorship and established the current democratic system. Following a severe recession that began in 2001, President Néstor Kirchner assumed office in 2003, and his wife took over from 2007 to 2015; during the Kirchner administrations, more than eleven million people were lifted out of poverty, and Argentina's economy grew in stature to become one of the Group of Twenty.

Between 1500 and 1820, an estimated 2.58 million Europeans migrated to the Americas, namely from the British Isles, Portugal, Spain, France and Germany. Until the mid-1600s, the majority of European migrants were from the Iberian Peninsula, as Portugal and Spain had a 150 year head start over other European powers when building their overseas empires. However, by the end of the century, more settlers from the British Isles had emigrated to the New World than from Spain or Portugal; the majority of which migrated to British colonies in the Caribbean as indentured servants or prisoners. The 18th century also saw migrants from other European nations begin to migrate en masse, particularly those from France and the German states, although migration from the British Isles and Portugal remained at the highest levels.

In comparison to the almost 2.6 million Europeans migrants, it is estimated that over 8.6 million Africans were forced across the Atlantic during this time period, as part of the transatlantic slave trade. The first half of the 19th century saw the demise of the transatlantic slave trade, which was followed by an influx of white migration to the Americas from across Europe; this contributed heavily to reversing demographic trends and making those with African ancestry an ethnic minority in most American countries today.

In 1800, the population of the territory that makes up present-day Thailand was approximately 4.7 million people. As part of the kingdom of Siam, the population of Thailand would grow gradually through the 19 th century, with much of the population growth being driven by Chinese emigration from southern Qing China into Siam, in search of work and refuge from instability in their home country. This migrant influx would continue throughout the century, with estimates suggesting that the Chinese population in Siam grew from 230,000 in 1825, to over 792,000 in 1910; by 1932, over 12 percent of the population in modern-day Thailand was ethnically Chinese. Migration from China would see another surge under the reign of Vajiravudh, as the "Warlord era" in China, after the fall of the Qing dynasty, would see entire families of Chinese immigrants arriving in Thailand. While immigration would slow in later years, Chinese-Thai would remain a significant demographic in Thailand’s population, both as one of the largest overseas Chinese populations, and accounting for an estimated 11-14 percent of the total Thailand population in 2012.

Population growth would slow somewhat in the 1930s, as several rebellions and coups, paired with a rise in anti-Chinese sentiment in the country, would result in a sharp decline in immigration to the country. In the years following the Second World War, the population of Thailand would begin to grow rapidly, following a wave of urbanization and a significant increase in standard of living throughout the country. As a result, the population of Thailand would rise from approximately 20 million in 1950, to just under 63 million by the turn of the century just 50 years later. This population growth would slow somewhat as the country would continue to modernize in the 2000s, and in 2020, it is estimated that just under 70 million people live in Thailand.

Humans have been living on the continent of Australia (name derived from "Terra Australis"; Latin for "the southern land") for approximately 65,000 years, however population growth was relatively slow until the nineteenth century. Europeans had made some contact with Australia as early as 1606, however there was no significant attempt at settlement until the late eighteenth century. By 1800, the population of Australia was approximately 350,000 people, and the majority of these were Indigenous Australians. As colonization progressed the number of ethnic Europeans increased while the Australian Aboriginal population was decimated through conflict, smallpox and other diseases, with some communities being exterminated completely, such as Aboriginal Tasmanians. Mass migration from Britain and China After the loss of its American colonies in the 1780s, the British Empire looked to other parts of the globe to expand its sphere of influence. In Australia, the first colonies were established in Sydney, Tasmania and Western Australia. Many of these were penal colonies which became home to approximately 164,000 British and Irish convicts who were transported to Australia between 1788 and 1868. As the decades progressed, expansion into the interior intensified, and the entire country was claimed by Britain in 1826. Inland colonization led to further conflict between European settlers and indigenous Australians, which cost the lives of thousands of natives. Inward expansion also saw the discovery of many natural resources, and most notably led to the gold rushes of the 1850s, which attracted substantial numbers of Chinese migrants to Australia. This mass migration from non-European countries eventually led to some restrictive policies being introduced, culminating with the White Australia Policy of 1901, which cemented ethnic-European dominance in Australian politics and society. These policies were not retracted until the second half of the 1900s. Independent Australia Australia changed its status to a British dominion in 1901, and eventually became independent in 1931. Despite this, Australia has remained a part of the British Commonwealth, and Australian forces (ANZAC) fought with the British and their Allies in both World Wars, and were instrumental in campaigns such as Gallipoli in WWI, and the South West Pacific Theater in WWII. The aftermath of both wars had a significant impact on the Australian population, with approximately 90 thousand deaths in both world wars combined, as well as 15 thousand deaths as a result of the Spanish flu pandemic following WWI, although Australia experienced a significant baby boom following the Second World War. In the past fifty years, Australia has promoted immigration from all over the world, and now has one of the strongest economies and highest living standards in the world, with a population that has grown to over 25 million people in 2020.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the U.S. labor force was approximately 1.9 million people, with slaves making up over half a million (28 percent) of this number. The share of slaves then increased to almost one third of the overall workforce in the next decade, but dropped to roughly one fifth by 1860; the year before the American Civil War. While the total number of slaves grew by several hundred thousand in each decade, their share of the U.S. labor force decreased due to the high levels of European migration to the U.S. throughout the 19th century. This wave of mass migration was an influential factor in slavery's eventual abolition, as Europeans met the labor demands that had previously been fulfilled by slaves, and those fleeing persecution and oppression in Europe were often sympathetic to the plight of slaves. Nonetheless, the majority of European migrants arrived in the industrialized, northern states, most of which had already abolished slavery in the 18th century, and slave labor was concentrated in the agricultural south at this time; this divide would prove fundamental in the outbreak of the American Civil War.

In 1800, the region of Germany was not a single, unified nation, but a collection of decentralized, independent states, bound together as part of the Holy Roman Empire. This empire was dissolved, however, in 1806, during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras in Europe, and the German Confederation was established in 1815. Napoleonic reforms led to the abolition of serfdom, extension of voting rights to property-owners, and an overall increase in living standards. The population grew throughout the remainder of the century, as improvements in sanitation and medicine (namely, mandatory vaccination policies) saw child mortality rates fall in later decades. As Germany industrialized and the economy grew, so too did the argument for nationhood; calls for pan-Germanism (the unification of all German-speaking lands) grew more popular among the lower classes in the mid-1800s, especially following the revolutions of 1948-49. In contrast, industrialization and poor harvests also saw high unemployment in rural regions, which led to waves of mass migration, particularly to the U.S.. In 1886, the Austro-Prussian War united northern Germany under a new Confederation, while the remaining German states (excluding Austria and Switzerland) joined following the Franco-Prussian War in 1871; this established the German Empire, under the Prussian leadership of Emperor Wilhelm I and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. 1871 to 1945 - Unification to the Second World War The first decades of unification saw Germany rise to become one of Europe's strongest and most advanced nations, and challenge other world powers on an international scale, establishing colonies in Africa and the Pacific. These endeavors were cut short, however, when the Austro-Hungarian heir apparent was assassinated in Sarajevo; Germany promised a "blank check" of support for Austria's retaliation, who subsequently declared war on Serbia and set the First World War in motion. Viewed as the strongest of the Central Powers, Germany mobilized over 11 million men throughout the war, and its army fought in all theaters. As the war progressed, both the military and civilian populations grew increasingly weakened due to malnutrition, as Germany's resources became stretched. By the war's end in 1918, Germany suffered over 2 million civilian and military deaths due to conflict, and several hundred thousand more during the accompanying influenza pandemic. Mass displacement and the restructuring of Europe's borders through the Treaty of Versailles saw the population drop by several million more.

Reparations and economic mismanagement also financially crippled Germany and led to bitter indignation among many Germans in the interwar period; something that was exploited by Adolf Hitler on his rise to power. Reckless printing of money caused hyperinflation in 1923, when the currency became so worthless that basic items were priced at trillions of Marks; the introduction of the Rentenmark then stabilized the economy before the Great Depression of 1929 sent it back into dramatic decline. When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi government disregarded the Treaty of Versailles' restrictions and Germany rose once more to become an emerging superpower. Hitler's desire for territorial expansion into eastern Europe and the creation of an ethnically-homogenous German empire then led to the invasion of Poland in 1939, which is considered the beginning of the Second World War in Europe. Again, almost every aspect of German life contributed to the war effort, and more than 13 million men were mobilized. After six years of war, and over seven million German deaths, the Axis powers were defeated and Germany was divided into four zones administered by France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the U.S.. Mass displacement, shifting borders, and the relocation of peoples based on ethnicity also greatly affected the population during this time. 1945 to 2020 - Partition and Reunification In the late 1940s, cold war tensions led to two distinct states emerging in Germany; the Soviet-controlled east became the communist German Democratic Republic (DDR), and the three western zones merged to form the democratic Federal Republic of Germany. Additionally, Berlin was split in a similar fashion, although its location deep inside DDR territory created series of problems and opportunities for the those on either side. Life quickly changed depending on which side of the border one lived. Within a decade, rapid economic recovery saw West Germany become western Europe's strongest economy and a key international player. In the east, living standards were much lower, although unemployment was almost non-existent; internationally, East Germany was the strongest economy in the Eastern Bloc (after the USSR), though it eventually fell behind the West by the 1970s. The restriction of movement between the two states also led to labor shortages in t...

In 1800, the population of Japan was just over 30 million, a figure which would grow by just two million in the first half of the 19th century. However, with the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate and the restoration of the emperor in the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Japan would begin transforming from an isolated feudal island, to a modernized empire built on Western models. The Meiji period would see a rapid rise in the population of Japan, as industrialization and advancements in healthcare lead to a significant reduction in child mortality rates, while the creation overseas colonies would lead to a strong economic boom. However, this growth would slow beginning in 1937, as Japan entered a prolonged war with the Republic of China, which later grew into a major theater of the Second World War. The war was eventually brought to Japan's home front, with the escalation of Allied air raids on Japanese urban centers from 1944 onwards (Tokyo was the most-bombed city of the Second World War). By the war's end in 1945 and the subsequent occupation of the island by the Allied military, Japan had suffered over two and a half million military fatalities, and over one million civilian deaths.

The population figures of Japan were quick to recover, as the post-war “economic miracle” would see an unprecedented expansion of the Japanese economy, and would lead to the country becoming one of the first fully industrialized nations in East Asia. As living standards rose, the population of Japan would increase from 77 million in 1945, to over 127 million by the end of the century. However, growth would begin to slow in the late 1980s, as birth rates and migration rates fell, and Japan eventually grew to have one of the oldest populations in the world. The population would peak in 2008 at just over 128 million, but has consistently fallen each year since then, as the fertility rate of the country remains below replacement level (despite government initiatives to counter this) and the country's immigrant population remains relatively stable. The population of Japan is expected to continue its decline in the coming years, and in 2020, it is estimated that approximately 126 million people inhabit the island country.