In the century between Napoleon's defeat and the outbreak of the First World War (known as the "Pax Britannica"), the British Empire grew to become the largest and most powerful empire in the world. At its peak in the 1910s and 1920s, it encompassed almost one quarter of both the world's population and its land surface, and was known as "the empire on which the sun never sets". The empire's influence could be felt across the globe, as Britain could use its position to affect trade and economies in all areas of the world, including many regions that were not part of the formal empire (for example, Britain was able to affect trading policy in China for over a century, due to its control of Hong Kong and the neighboring colonies of India and Burma). Some historians argue that because of its economic, military, political and cultural influence, nineteenth century Britain was the closest thing to a hegemonic superpower that the world ever had, and possibly ever will have. "Rule Britannia" Due to the technological and logistical restrictions of the past, we will never know the exact borders of the British Empire each year, nor the full extent of its power. However, by using historical sources in conjunction with modern political borders, we can gain new perspectives and insights on just how large and influential the British Empire actually was. If we transpose a map of all former British colonies, dominions, mandates, protectorates and territories, as well as secure territories of the East India Trading Company (EIC) (who acted as the precursor to the British Empire) onto a current map of the world, we can see that Britain had a significant presence in at least 94 present-day countries (approximately 48 percent). This included large territories such as Australia, the Indian subcontinent, most of North America and roughly one third of the African continent, as well as a strategic network of small enclaves (such as Gibraltar and Hong Kong) and islands around the globe that helped Britain to maintain and protect its trade routes. The sun sets... Although the data in this graph does not show the annual population or size of the British Empire, it does give some context to how Britain has impacted and controlled the development of the world over the past four centuries. From 1600 until 1920, Britain's Empire expanded from a small colony in Newfoundland, a failing conquest in Ireland, and early ventures by the EIC in India, to Britain having some level of formal control in almost half of all present-day countries. The English language is an official language in all inhabited continents, its political and bureaucratic systems are used all over the globe, and empirical expansion helped Christianity to become the most practiced major religion worldwide. In the second half of the twentieth century, imperial and colonial empires were eventually replaced by global enterprises. The United States and Soviet Union emerged from the Second World War as the new global superpowers, and the independence movements in longstanding colonies, particularly Britain, France and Portugal, gradually succeeded. The British Empire finally ended in 1997 when it seceded control of Hong Kong to China, after more than 150 years in charge. Today, the United Kingdom consists of four constituent countries, and it is responsible for three crown dependencies and fourteen overseas territories, although the legacy of the British Empire can still be seen, and it's impact will be felt for centuries to come.

As of May 2025, there were 439 nuclear reactors in operation in over 30 countries around the world. The United States had the largest number of nuclear power reactors in operation at the time, at 94 units. Operable nuclear reactors refer to those that are connected to the grid. Nuclear reactors under construction The largest reactors under construction as of July 2024 were situated in the United Kingdom, with a gross electricity generation capacity of 1,720 megawatts. Meanwhile, the country with the largest capacity of nuclear reactors under construction worldwide was China, where reactors with a total capacity of almost 30 gigawatts were being built at the time. Uranium supply worldwide Uranium is a radioactive metal that is extracted from mines, mainly in Kazakhstan, Australia, and Namibia. After the uranium splitting process for nuclear fission, the used fuel elements are still radioactive and have to be stored in nuclear waste repositories or spent fuel pools. These sites are often underground and require thick metal or concrete walls to shield the public from radiation.

Countries with the highest speeds demonstrate examples of efficient infrastructure and investment in digital technologies, providing their citizens with fast and stable internet. In contrast, countries with low speeds face numerous challenges, especially economic ones.

In 2025, Iceland was the worldwide leader in terms of internet freedom. The country ranked first with 94 index points in the Freedom House Index, where each country received a numerical score from 100 (the freest) to 0 (the least free). Estonia ranked second with 91 index points, followed by Chile, with a score of 87 index points. Internet restrictions worldwide The decline of internet freedom in 2022 is mainly linked to political conflicts in different parts of the world. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government intensified its attempts to control the online content in the country. The government placed restrictions on three different U.S.-based social media platforms at the same time, X, formerly known as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. These restrictions made it to the top of the longest-lasting limitations on the web in 2022. Social protests rose in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022. The Iranian government decided to shut down the internet and various social media platforms in an attempt to minimize the communication between the protesters. In 2022, 11 new internet restrictions were recorded in Iran. However, residents in the Indian region of Jammu and Kashmir saw the highest number of new internet restrictions, which amounted to more than double the ones in Iran. The impact of internet shutdowns In 2022, the economic impact of internet restrictions worldwide reached an estimated 23.79 billion U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, the highest financial losses due to internet shutdowns were caused by limitations in Russia, and more than seven thousand hours of restricted various online services had an economic impact of 21.59 billion U.S. dollars. The restrictions impacted around 113 million people in the country. Myanmar placed the most extended restriction on internet services, lasting 17,520 hours in total. Similar restrictions in India affected over 120 million people. 

WorldPop produces different types of gridded population count datasets, depending on the methods used and end application. Please make sure you have read our Mapping Populations overview page before choosing and downloading a dataset.


Bespoke methods used to produce datasets for specific individual countries are available through the WorldPop Open Population Repository (WOPR) link below. These are 100m resolution gridded population estimates using customized methods ("bottom-up" and/or "top-down") developed for the latest data available from each country. They can also be visualised and explored through the woprVision App.
The remaining datasets in the links below are produced using the "top-down" method, with either the unconstrained or constrained top-down disaggregation method used. Please make sure you read the Top-down estimation modelling overview page to decide on which datasets best meet your needs. Datasets are available to download in Geotiff and ASCII XYZ format at a resolution of 3 and 30 arc-seconds (approximately 100m and 1km at the equator, respectively):

- Unconstrained individual countries 2000-2020 ( 1km resolution ): Consistent 1km resolution population count datasets created using unconstrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for each year 2000-2020.
- Unconstrained individual countries 2000-2020 ( 100m resolution ): Consistent 100m resolution population count datasets created using unconstrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for each year 2000-2020.
- Unconstrained individual countries 2000-2020 UN adjusted ( 100m resolution ): Consistent 100m resolution population count datasets created using unconstrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for each year 2000-2020 and adjusted to match United Nations national population estimates (UN 2019)
-Unconstrained individual countries 2000-2020 UN adjusted ( 1km resolution ): Consistent 1km resolution population count datasets created using unconstrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for each year 2000-2020 and adjusted to match United Nations national population estimates (UN 2019).
-Unconstrained global mosaics 2000-2020 ( 1km resolution ): Mosaiced 1km resolution versions of the "Unconstrained individual countries 2000-2020" datasets.
-Constrained individual countries 2020 ( 100m resolution ): Consistent 100m resolution population count datasets created using constrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for 2020.
-Constrained individual countries 2020 UN adjusted ( 100m resolution ): Consistent 100m resolution population count datasets created using constrained top-down methods for all countries of the World for 2020 and adjusted to match United Nations national population estimates (UN 2019).

Older datasets produced for specific individual countries and continents, using a set of tailored geospatial inputs and differing "top-down" methods and time periods are still available for download here: Individual countries and Whole Continent.

Data for earlier dates is available directly from WorldPop.

WorldPop (www.worldpop.org - School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton; Department of Geography and Geosciences, University of Louisville; Departement de Geographie, Universite de Namur) and Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University (2018). Global High Resolution Population Denominators Project - Funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1134076). https://dx.doi.org/10.5258/SOTON/WP00645

The Africa Population Distribution Database provides decadal population density data for African administrative units for the period 1960-1990. The databsae was prepared for the United Nations Environment Programme / Global Resource Information Database (UNEP/GRID) project as part of an ongoing effort to improve global, spatially referenced demographic data holdings. The database is useful for a variety of applications including strategic-level agricultural research and applications in the analysis of the human dimensions of global change.

This documentation describes the third version of a database of administrative units and associated population density data for Africa. The first version was compiled for UNEP's Global Desertification Atlas (UNEP, 1997; Deichmann and Eklundh, 1991), while the second version represented an update and expansion of this first product (Deichmann, 1994; WRI, 1995). The current work is also related to National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) activities to produce a global database of subnational population estimates (Tobler et al., 1995), and an improved database for the Asian continent (Deichmann, 1996). The new version for Africa provides considerably more detail: more than 4700 administrative units, compared to about 800 in the first and 2200 in the second version. In addition, for each of these units a population estimate was compiled for 1960, 70, 80 and 90 which provides an indication of past population dynamics in Africa. Forthcoming are population count data files as download options.

African population density data were compiled from a large number of heterogeneous sources, including official government censuses and estimates/projections derived from yearbooks, gazetteers, area handbooks, and other country studies. The political boundaries template (PONET) of the Digital Chart of the World (DCW) was used delineate national boundaries and coastlines for African countries.

For more information on African population density and administrative boundary data sets, see metadata files at [http://na.unep.net/datasets/datalist.php3] which provide information on file identification, format, spatial data organization, distribution, and metadata reference.

References:

Deichmann, U. 1994. A medium resolution population database for Africa, Database documentation and digital database, National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Deichmann, U. and L. Eklundh. 1991. Global digital datasets for land degradation studies: A GIS approach, GRID Case Study Series No. 4, Global Resource Information Database, United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi.

UNEP. 1997. World Atlas of Desertification, 2nd Ed., United Nations Environment Programme, Edward Arnold Publishers, London.

WRI. 1995. Africa data sampler, Digital database and documentation, World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C.

The average for 2023 based on 161 countries was 94.72 percent. The highest value was in Luxembourg: 404.46 percent and the lowest value was in Sudan: 2.47 percent. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2024. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

China Grapes Production jumped by 4.4% in 2019, compared to a year earlier.

As of October 2025, social network X (formerly known as Twitter) was most popular in the United States, with an audience reach of approximately 99.04 million users. Japan ranked second, recording more than 71 million users on the platform. Global Twitter usage As of the second quarter of 2021, X/Twitter had 206 million monetizable daily active users worldwide. The most-followed Twitter accounts include figures such as Elon Musk, Justin Bieber and former U.S. president Barack Obama. X/Twitter and politics X/Twitter has become an increasingly relevant tool in domestic and international politics. The platform has become a way to promote policies and interact with citizens and other officials, and most world leaders and foreign ministries have an official Twitter account. Former U.S. president Donald Trump used to be a prolific Twitter user before the platform permanently suspended his account in January 2021. During an August 2018 survey, 61 percent of respondents stated that Trump's use of Twitter as President of the United States was inappropriate.

The average for 2017 based on 97 countries was 7.4 homicides per 100,000 people. The highest value was in El Salvador: 61.8 homicides per 100,000 people and the lowest value was in Japan: 0.2 homicides per 100,000 people. The indicator is available from 1990 to 2017. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

As of May 2025, almost half of the planned nuclear reactors worldwide were in China. This country planned the construction of 40 nuclear units out of the total global number of 110. Russia followed in second place with 23 planned nuclear reactors. Nuclear reactors Nuclear reactors are used to start and control a nuclear chain reaction in power plants. The heat from the reaction is transferred to a working fluid, which in turn runs through turbines for both electricity generation and ship propulsion. Nuclear reactors can also be used in the creation of isotopes for medical or industrial purposes, as well as for weapons production. The mean construction time for global nuclear reactors completed between 2014 and 2023 averaged 10 years, ranging from a minimum of six in China to a maximum of 38 in Slovakia. Nuclear power reactors worldwide While China and Russia had the largest number of planned nuclear reactors, the United States reported the largest number of operable nuclear reactors at as of May 2025, with 94 units. China and France followed, with 58 and 57 operable reactors respectively at that time. In terms of nuclear reactors under construction, China led the ranking, with 25 units as of July 2024.

This dataset provides values for GDP reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

The modern Olympic Games or Olympics are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games are considered the world's foremost sports competition with more than 200 nations participating. The Olympic Games are normally held every four years, and since 1994, has alternated between the Summer and Winter Olympics every two years during the four-year period.

A medal ceremony is held after the conclusion of each Olympic event. The winner, and the second- and third-place competitors or teams, stand on top of a three-tiered rostrum to be awarded their respective medals by a member of the IOC. After the medals have been received, the national flags of the three medallists are raised while the national anthem of the gold medallist's country is played. Volunteering citizens of the host country also act as hosts during the medal ceremonies, assisting the officials who present the medals and acting as flag-bearers. In the Summer Olympics, each medal ceremony is held at the venue where the event has taken place, but the ceremonies at the Winter Olympics are usually held in a special "plaza".

As of October 2025, India was the country with the largest YouTube audience by far, with approximately 500 million users engaging with the popular social video platform. The United States followed, with 254 million YouTube viewers. Indonesia came in third, with 151 million users watching content on YouTube. The United Kingdom saw 55.5 million internet users engaging with the platform in the examined period. What country has the highest percentage of YouTube users? Saudi Arabia was the country with the highest YouTube penetration worldwide, as nearly 96 percent of the country's digital population engaged with the service. In 2025, YouTube counted 125 million paid subscribers for its YouTube Music and YouTube Premium services. YouTube mobile markets YouTube is among the most popular social media platforms worldwide. In terms of in-app (IAP) revenue, the YouTube app generated approximately 53 million U.S. dollars in the United States in December 2024, as well as 17 million U.S. dollars in Japan.

The United States is the largest consumer of nuclear power, having accounted for almost 30 percent of the world’s nuclear power consumption in 2024. In 2024, nuclear energy consumption in the U.S. totaled nine exajoules. Nuclear power generation In 2010, global nuclear power generation reached 2,630 terawatt-hours. Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011, that year saw an output drop. Generation also declined in 2012 but has since recovered. It amounted to 2,552 terawatt-hours in 2023. Currently, nuclear power accounts for roughly nine percent of global electricity generation. Nuclear reactors As the top producer of nuclear power, it comes as no surprise that the U.S. has by far the most operable nuclear reactors worldwide. With a total of 94 units in operation as of May 2025, this is almost 40 more than in China. Nevertheless, whilst the U.S. had no planned nuclear reactor additions at the time, China had 40. The Asian country also had 28 nuclear reactors under construction. It is projected that China will surpass the U.S. as the world’s largest nuclear energy producer.

The highest position of executive power has been held by a woman in just 65 countries since 1960. Since Sirimavo Bandaranaike was first elected Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in 1960, the number of women in power has grown slowly, with the fastest growth coming in the past 15 years. As of July 2025, there were 14 countries led by women, with Liechtenstein, Namibia, and Suriname electing their first women leaders in 2025; while Thailand's prime minister was suspended in July following an ethics scandal. Despite this number growing in recent decades, there have never been more than 17 countries with women in the highest positions of power in a single year, which is less than 10 percent of the number of men who have held these positions (as today, there are 193 UN member states). Records The women who have served the longest consecutive terms in these positions are Angela Merkel of Germany (16 years, 16 days), Dame Eugenia Charles of Dominica (14 years, 328 days), and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia (12 years, 6 days). The longest combined non-consecutive terms were held by Indira Gandhi of India (16 years, 15 days) and Bangladesh's Sheikh Hasina (20 years, 234 days). Just 15 countries have had more than one woman in the highest position of executive power, and most of these countries can be found either in the Indian sub-continent or in Europe. Of these 14, Finland, Iceland, Moldova, New Zealand, and the UK are the only countries to have had three female leaders, although the unique federal system of Switzerland has had five women serve in nine annual-terms as President of the Swiss Confederation. The first woman Prime Minister The first democratically elected female Prime Minister was Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka, who took over the leadership of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party when her husband was assassinated in 1959. Bandaranaike successfully led her party to victory in three elections, in 1960, 1970 and 1994, however constitutional changes in the 1980s meant that her final term as Prime Minister was spent in a more ceremonial role, while the President now held the real executive power (although the President at this time was also a woman; Bandaranaike's daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga).

France is the leading country for the fashion industry in the world, according to the Brands Countries IPX by IFDAQ. Scoring above ***** index points, France was ahead of Italy (***** points) and the U.S. (***** points).

As of early 2025, Saudi Arabia had the highest social media penetration rate globally out of selected countries and territories, with a whopping 102 percent. UAE and South Korea followed, with 96 percent and 94 percent of active usage reach, respectively. Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria had some of the lowest social network penetration rates in the world, with less than 26 percent of the population accessing social media in each country.

              How many people use social media?

              Although the top three countries with the highest social media penetration rates globally were in Eastern and Southwestern Asia in 2023, the region with the greatest social media reach was Northern Europe with 83.6 percent, followed by Western Europe with 83.3 percent and Southern Europe with 76.7 percent. In 2022, more than 4.59 billion people reported using social media,
              and this number is projected to reach almost six billion by 2027.

              Facebook: the most popular social network
              Meta’s Facebook, the social media giant and the first platform to reach this kind of scale, was the leading social network as of October 2023 with more than three billion global monthly active users (MAU). Additionally, Meta owns four of the biggest social media platforms, all with more than one billion MAU each: Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. As of January 2023,
              India was home to Facebook’s largest audience with more than 300 million MAU, followed by the United States with 175 million MAU.

A survey from 2023 of 39 countries around the world found that adults from Indonesia were the most likely to report they were very healthy or healthy with almost 96 percent of respondents. Vietnam and Mexico followed with around 93 percent of adults in these countries stating they were very healthy or healthy. Among the countries that were surveyed, Nigeria, Poland, and Chile, were the least likely to report being healthy. Factors for good health Unsurprisingly, this survey also found that Indonesia was more likely to positively report different health factors such as fitness and weight. Around 94 percent of adults from Indonesia reported their weight and fitness as very good or quite good. In comparison, around 64 percent of adults from the United States stated their weight was very good or quite good. However, those from Paraguay were the most likely to report their stress level/mental health was very good or quite good, followed by Indonesia and Vietnam. Around 97 percent of adults from Paraguay felt their stress level/mental health was very good or quite good, compared to just 36 percent of those in Argentina, the lowest share among the surveyed countries. Biggest global health problems A survey of over 23,000 adults from 31 countries found mental health was the biggest health problem respondents said was facing their country in 2024. This was followed by cancer, stress, and obesity. Interestingly, only 16 percent of respondents stated heart disease was the biggest health problem in their country, despite heart disease being the leading cause of death worldwide. In 2021, ischemic heart disease caused just over nine million deaths worldwide. COVID-19 was the second leading cause of death that year, with 8.7 million people losing their lives to the disease. Other global leading causes of death are stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lower respiratory infections, and lung cancer.

In 2023, Washington, D.C. had the highest population density in the United States, with 11,130.69 people per square mile. As a whole, there were about 94.83 residents per square mile in the U.S., and Alaska was the state with the lowest population density, with 1.29 residents per square mile. The problem of population density Simply put, population density is the population of a country divided by the area of the country. While this can be an interesting measure of how many people live in a country and how large the country is, it does not account for the degree of urbanization, or the share of people who live in urban centers. For example, Russia is the largest country in the world and has a comparatively low population, so its population density is very low. However, much of the country is uninhabited, so cities in Russia are much more densely populated than the rest of the country. Urbanization in the United States While the United States is not very densely populated compared to other countries, its population density has increased significantly over the past few decades. The degree of urbanization has also increased, and well over half of the population lives in urban centers.