The world population surpassed eight billion people in 2022, having doubled from its figure less than 50 years previously. Looking forward, it is projected that the world population will reach nine billion in 2038, and 10 billion in 2060, but it will peak around 10.3 billion in the 2080s before it then goes into decline. Regional variations The global population has seen rapid growth since the early 1800s, due to advances in areas such as food production, healthcare, water safety, education, and infrastructure, however, these changes did not occur at a uniform time or pace across the world. Broadly speaking, the first regions to undergo their demographic transitions were Europe, North America, and Oceania, followed by Latin America and Asia (although Asia's development saw the greatest variation due to its size), while Africa was the last continent to undergo this transformation. Because of these differences, many so-called "advanced" countries are now experiencing population decline, particularly in Europe and East Asia, while the fastest population growth rates are found in Sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, the roughly two billion difference in population between now and the 2080s' peak will be found in Sub-Saharan Africa, which will rise from 1.2 billion to 3.2 billion in this time (although populations in other continents will also fluctuate). Changing projections The United Nations releases their World Population Prospects report every 1-2 years, and this is widely considered the foremost demographic dataset in the world. However, recent years have seen a notable decline in projections when the global population will peak, and at what number. Previous reports in the 2010s had suggested a peak of over 11 billion people, and that population growth would continue into the 2100s, however a sooner and shorter peak is now projected. Reasons for this include a more rapid population decline in East Asia and Europe, particularly China, as well as a prolongued development arc in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Chart and table of World population from 1950 to 2025. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.

As of February 2025, there were 5.56 billion internet users worldwide, which amounted to 67.9 percent of the global population. Of this total, 5.24 billion, or 63.9 percent of the world's population, were social media users. Global internet usage Connecting billions of people worldwide, the internet is a core pillar of the modern information society. Northern Europe ranked first among worldwide regions by the share of the population using the internet in 2024. In The Netherlands, Norway and Saudi Arabia, 99 percent of the population used the internet as of April 2024. North Korea was at the opposite end of the spectrum, with virtually no internet usage penetration among the general population, ranking last worldwide. Asia was home to the largest number of online users worldwide – over 2.93 billion at the latest count. Europe ranked second, with around 750 million internet users. China, India, and the United States rank ahead of other countries worldwide by the number of internet users. Worldwide internet user demographics As of 2023, the share of female internet users worldwide was 65 percent, five percent less than that of men. Gender disparity in internet usage was bigger in the Arab States and Africa, with around a ten percent difference. Worldwide regions, like the Commonwealth of Independent States and Europe, showed a smaller gender gap. As of 2023, global internet usage was higher among individuals between 15 and 24 years across all regions, with young people in Europe representing the most significant usage penetration, 98 percent. In comparison, the worldwide average for the age group 15–24 years was 79 percent. The income level of the countries was also an essential factor for internet access, as 93 percent of the population of the countries with high income reportedly used the internet, as opposed to only 27 percent of the low-income markets.

Context

Late in December 2019, the World Health Organisation (WHO) China Country Office obtained information about severe pneumonia of an unknown cause, detected in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, China. This later turned out to be the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) of the coronavirus family. The disease causes respiratory illness characterized by primary symptoms like cough, fever, and in more acute cases, difficulty in breathing. WHO later declared COVID-19 as a Pandemic because of its fast rate of spread across the Globe.

Content

The COVID-19 datasets organized by continent contain daily level information about the COVID-19 cases in the different continents of the world. It is a time-series data and the number of cases on any given day is cumulative. The original datasets can be found on this John Hopkins University Github repository. I will be updating the COVID-19 datasets on a daily basis, with every update from John Hopkins University. I have also included the World COVID-19 tests data scraped from Worldometer and 2020 world population also from [worldometer]((https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/).

The datasets

COVID-19 cases covid19_world.csv. It contains the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases from around the world since January 22, 2020, as compiled by John Hopkins University. covid19_asia.csv, covid19_africa.csv, covid19_europe.csv, covid19_northamerica.csv, covid19.southamerica.csv, covid19_oceania.csv, and covid19_others.csv. These contain the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases organized by the continent.

Field description - ObservationDate: Date of observation in YY/MM/DD - Country_Region: name of Country or Region - Province_State: name of Province or State - Confirmed: the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases - Deaths: the number of deaths from COVID-19 - Recovered: the number of recovered cases - Active: the number of people still infected with COVID-19 Note: Active = Confirmed - (Deaths + Recovered)

COVID-19 tests `covid19_tests.csv. It contains the cumulative number of COVID tests data from worldometer conducted since the onset of the pandemic. Data available from June 01, 2020.

Field description Date: date in YY/MM/DD Country, Other: Country, Region, or dependency TotalTests: cumulative number of tests up till that date Population: population of Country, Region, or dependency Tests/1M pop: tests per 1 million of the population 1 Testevery X ppl: 1 test for every X number of people

2020 world population world_population(2020).csv. It contains the 2020 world population as reported by woldometer.

Field description Country (or dependency): Country or dependency Population (2020): population in 2020 Yearly Change: yearly change in population as a percentage Net Change: the net change in population Density(P/km2): population density Land Area(km2): land area Migrants(net): net number of migrants Fert. Rate: Fertility Rate Med. Age: median age Urban pop: urban population World Share: share of the world population as a percentage

Acknowledgements

1. John Hopkins University for making COVID-19 datasets available to the public: https://github.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19/tree/master/csse_covid_19_data/csse_covid_19_daily_reports
2. John Hopkins University COVID-19 Dashboard: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
3. COVID-19 Africa dashboard: http://covid-19-africa.sen.ovh/
4. Worldometer: https://www.worldometers.info/
5. SRk for uploading a global COVID-19 dataset on Kaggle: https://www.kaggle.com/sudalairajkumar/novel-corona-virus-2019-dataset#covid_19_data.csv
6. United Nations Department of General Assembly and Conference Management: https://www.un.org/depts/DGACM/RegionalGroups.shtml
7. wallpapercave.com: https://wallpapercave.com/covid-19-wallpapers

Inspiration

Possible Insights 1. The current number of COVID-19 cases in Africa 2. The current number of COVID-19 cases by country 3. The number of COVID-19 cases in Africa / African country(s) by May 30, 2020 (Any future date)

Based on a comparison of coronavirus deaths in 210 countries relative to their population, Peru had the most losses to COVID-19 up until July 13, 2022. As of the same date, the virus had infected over 557.8 million people worldwide, and the number of deaths had totaled more than 6.3 million. Note, however, that COVID-19 test rates can vary per country. Additionally, big differences show up between countries when combining the number of deaths against confirmed COVID-19 cases. The source seemingly does not differentiate between "the Wuhan strain" (2019-nCOV) of COVID-19, "the Kent mutation" (B.1.1.7) that appeared in the UK in late 2020, the 2021 Delta variant (B.1.617.2) from India or the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) from South Africa.

The difficulties of death figures

This table aims to provide a complete picture on the topic, but it very much relies on data that has become more difficult to compare. As the coronavirus pandemic developed across the world, countries already used different methods to count fatalities, and they sometimes changed them during the course of the pandemic. On April 16, for example, the Chinese city of Wuhan added a 50 percent increase in their death figures to account for community deaths. These deaths occurred outside of hospitals and went unaccounted for so far. The state of New York did something similar two days before, revising their figures with 3,700 new deaths as they started to include “assumed” coronavirus victims. The United Kingdom started counting deaths in care homes and private households on April 29, adjusting their number with about 5,000 new deaths (which were corrected lowered again by the same amount on August 18). This makes an already difficult comparison even more difficult. Belgium, for example, counts suspected coronavirus deaths in their figures, whereas other countries have not done that (yet). This means two things. First, it could have a big impact on both current as well as future figures. On April 16 already, UK health experts stated that if their numbers were corrected for community deaths like in Wuhan, the UK number would change from 205 to “above 300”. This is exactly what happened two weeks later. Second, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly which countries already have “revised” numbers (like Belgium, Wuhan or New York) and which ones do not. One work-around could be to look at (freely accessible) timelines that track the reported daily increase of deaths in certain countries. Several of these are available on our platform, such as for Belgium, Italy and Sweden. A sudden large increase might be an indicator that the domestic sources changed their methodology.

Where are these numbers coming from?

The numbers shown here were collected by Johns Hopkins University, a source that manually checks the data with domestic health authorities. For the majority of countries, this is from national authorities. In some cases, like China, the United States, Canada or Australia, city reports or other various state authorities were consulted. In this statistic, these separately reported numbers were put together. For more information or other freely accessible content, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

Associated with manuscript titled: Fifty Muslim-majority countries have fewer COVID-19 cases and deaths than the 50 richest non-Muslim countriesThe objective of this research was to determine the difference in the total number of COVID-19 cases and deaths between Muslim-majority and non-Muslim countries, and investigate reasons for the disparities. Methods: The 50 Muslim-majority countries had more than 50.0% Muslims with an average of 87.5%. The non-Muslim country sample consisted of 50 countries with the highest GDP while omitting any Muslim-majority countries listed. The non-Muslim countries’ average percentage of Muslims was 4.7%. Data pulled on September 18, 2020 included the percentage of Muslim population per country by World Population Review15 and GDP per country, population count, and total number of COVID-19 cases and deaths by Worldometers.16 The data set was transferred via an Excel spreadsheet on September 23, 2020 and analyzed. To measure COVID-19’s incidence in the countries, three different Average Treatment Methods (ATE) were used to validate the results. Results published as a preprint at https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/84zq5(15) Muslim Majority Countries 2020 [Internet]. Walnut (CA): World Population Review. 2020- [Cited 2020 Sept 28]. Available from: http://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/muslim-majority-countries (16) Worldometers.info. Worldometer. Dover (DE): Worldometer; 2020 [cited 2020 Sept 28]. Available from: http://worldometers.info

Monaco led the ranking for countries with the highest population density in 2024, with nearly 26,000 residents per square kilometer. The Special Administrative Region Macao came in second, followed by Singapore. The world’s second smallest country Monaco is the world’s second smallest country, with an area of about two square kilometers, and its population only numbers around 40,000. It is a constitutional monarchy located by the Mediterranean Sea, and while Monaco is not part of the European Union, it does participate in some EU policies. The country is perhaps most famous for the Monte Carlo casino and for hosting the Monaco Grand Prix, the world's most prestigious Formula One race. The global population Globally, the population density per square kilometer stands at about 60 inhabitants, and Asia is the most densely populated region in the world. The global population is increasing rapidly, so population density is only expected to increase as well. In 1950, for example, the global population stood at about 2.54 billion people, and it reached over eight billion during 2023.

The geographic distribution of human population is key to understanding the effects of humans on the natural world and how natural events such as storms, earthquakes, and other natural phenomenon affect humans. Dataset SummaryThis layer was created with a model that combines imagery, road intersection density, populated places, and urban foot prints to create a likelihood surface. The likelihood surface is then used to create a raster of population with a cell size of 0.00221 degrees (approximately 250 meters).The population raster is created usingDasymetriccartographic methods to allocate the population values in over 1.6 million census polygons covering the world.The population of each polygon was normalized to the 2013 United Nations population estimates by country.Each cell in this layer has an integer value depicting the number of people that are likely to reside in that cell. Tabulations based on these values should result in population totals that more accurately reflect the population of areas of several square kilometers.This layer has global coverage and was published by Esri in 2014.More information about this layer is available:Building the Most Detailed Population Map in the World

Demographic data set of countries of the world (1955-2020). This dataset is created using Web Scraping technics on webpage: https://www.worldometers.info/population/.

Chart and table of Philippines population from 1950 to 2025. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.

The Africa Population (Live) counter shows a continuously updated estimate of the current population of Africa delivered by Worldometer's RTS algorithm, which processes data collected from the United Nations Population Division. From https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/africa-population/

Census data reveals that population density varies noticeably from area to area. Small area census data do a better job depicting where the crowded neighborhoods are. In this map, the yellow areas of highest density range from 30,000 to 150,000 persons per square kilometer. In those areas, if the people were spread out evenly across the area, there would be just 4 to 9 meters between them. Very high density areas exceed 7,000 persons per square kilometer. High density areas exceed 5,200 persons per square kilometer. The last categories break at 3,330 persons per square kilometer, and 1,500 persons per square kilometer.This dataset is comprised of multiple sources. All of the demographic data are from Michael Bauer Research with the exception of the following countries:Australia: Esri Australia and MapData ServicesCanada: Esri Canada and EnvironicsFrance: Esri FranceGermany: Esri Germany and NexigaIndia: Esri India and IndicusJapan: Esri JapanSouth Korea: Esri Korea and OPENmateSpain: Esri España and AISUnited States: Esri Demographics

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Mexico City, Mexico metro area from 1950 to 2025. United Nations population projections are also included through the year 2035.

San Marino Urban Population Living in Areas Where Elevation is Below 5 meters: % of Total Population data was reported at 0.000 % in 2010. This stayed constant from the previous number of 0.000 % for 2000. San Marino Urban Population Living in Areas Where Elevation is Below 5 meters: % of Total Population data is updated yearly, averaging 0.000 % from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2010, with 3 observations. San Marino Urban Population Living in Areas Where Elevation is Below 5 meters: % of Total Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s San Marino – Table SM.World Bank: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Urban population below 5m is the percentage of the total population, living in areas where the elevation is 5 meters or less.; ; Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)/Columbia University. 2013. Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates Version 2. Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/set/lecz-urban-rural-population-land-area-estimates-v2.; Weighted Average;

Norway NO: Population Living in Areas Where Elevation is Below 5 Meters: % of Total Population data was reported at 3.851 % in 2010. This records a decrease from the previous number of 3.862 % for 2000. Norway NO: Population Living in Areas Where Elevation is Below 5 Meters: % of Total Population data is updated yearly, averaging 3.862 % from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2010, with 3 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 3.883 % in 1990 and a record low of 3.851 % in 2010. Norway NO: Population Living in Areas Where Elevation is Below 5 Meters: % of Total Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Norway – Table NO.World Bank: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Population below 5m is the percentage of the total population living in areas where the elevation is 5 meters or less.; ; Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)/Columbia University. 2013. Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates Version 2. Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/set/lecz-urban-rural-population-land-area-estimates-v2.; Weighted Average;

Syria SY: PM2.5 Air Pollution: Population Exposed to Levels Exceeding WHO Interim Target-1 Value: % of Total data was reported at 99.960 % in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 99.960 % for 2015. Syria SY: PM2.5 Air Pollution: Population Exposed to Levels Exceeding WHO Interim Target-1 Value: % of Total data is updated yearly, averaging 84.143 % from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2016, with 11 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 99.960 % in 2016 and a record low of 33.929 % in 2005. Syria SY: PM2.5 Air Pollution: Population Exposed to Levels Exceeding WHO Interim Target-1 Value: % of Total data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Syrian Arab Republic – Table SY.World Bank: Environment: Pollution. Percent of population exposed to ambient concentrations of PM2.5 that exceed the World Health Organization (WHO) Interim Target 1 (IT-1) is defined as the portion of a country’s population living in places where mean annual concentrations of PM2.5 are greater than 35 micrograms per cubic meter. The Air Quality Guideline (AQG) of 10 micrograms per cubic meter is recommended by the WHO as the lower end of the range of concentrations over which adverse health effects due to PM2.5 exposure have been observed.; ; Brauer, M. et al. 2016, for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016.; Weighted Average;

Estimated population data based on the latest United Nations Population Division estimates and http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/

Oman OM: Rural Population Living in Areas Where Elevation is Below 5 Meters: % of Total Population data was reported at 0.836 % in 2010. This records a decrease from the previous number of 0.846 % for 2000. Oman OM: Rural Population Living in Areas Where Elevation is Below 5 Meters: % of Total Population data is updated yearly, averaging 0.836 % from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2010, with 3 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 0.846 % in 2000 and a record low of 0.744 % in 1990. Oman OM: Rural Population Living in Areas Where Elevation is Below 5 Meters: % of Total Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Oman – Table OM.World Bank: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Rural population below 5m is the percentage of the total population, living in areas where the elevation is 5 meters or less.; ; Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)/Columbia University. 2013. Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates Version 2. Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/set/lecz-urban-rural-population-land-area-estimates-v2.; Weighted Average;

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Shanghai, China metro area from 1950 to 2025. United Nations population projections are also included through the year 2035.

Proportion of population in Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) living in Low Elevation Coastal Zones (LECZ) of 0-10 and 0-20 meters above sea level. LECZ were delineated using the bathub method overlaid on the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) Global Digital Surface Model (AW3D30). Populations within the LECZs were estimated using the Pacific Community (SPC) Statistics for Development Division’s 100m2 population grids.

Find more Pacific data on PDH.stat.