Data visualizations showing population growth around the world

The World Bank’s population data bank

This website by the World Bank provides visualizations for demographic data from around the world. Specific demographic data, such as total population, can be viewed through maps, charts, and graphs. Results can be filtered by sex, country, or year....

Mapping how human population has grown throughout history

It took 200,000 years for our human population to reach 1 billion—and only 200 years to reach 7 billion. When will our global population peak? And how can we minimize our impact on Earth’s resources, even as we approach 11 billion?

See how populations across the world could change in the 21st century

This tool lets you model the populations of individual countries by adjusting key demographic inputs. See how changes in birth rates, mortality, and migration affect the size and structure of future populations.

Everything you need to know about demography in 10 graphs

This 17-minute video explains the future of the world through demographic data points. Dr. Paul Morland has published three books on demography. In this talk, he shows how demography is a powerful lens to view global transformations. Included are...

Visualizing the world's population centers

What does population density look like on a global scale? These detailed 3D renders illustrate our biggest urban areas and highlight population trends.

America's demographic change in one chart

From 1901 to 2020, the US population has changed significantly. This video reveals the change in America’s demographics over more than 100 years.

The UN’s interactive site analyzing the world’s population

The 2022 revision of World Population Prospects contains the official population estimates and projections from the United Nations. It presents population estimates from 1950 to present for 237 countries or areas around the world. The data consider...

Interactive charts on human rights around the world

This website provides comprehensive data visualizations tracking human rights around the globe. While human rights have become much more protected, this varies between countries. Users can find information on how the protection of human rights has...

How global conditions have improved over 200 years

In an era of 24-hour news, it can feel as if the world is on a perpetual downward spiral. This set of visualizations zoom out, and show how global living conditions have improved in recent centuries. The percentage of people living in extreme...

What happens when the population grows faster than the food supply?

Human history is shaped by our ability to feed ourselves. See how population growth is tied to farmland, and how food production’s profound environmental effect shows us the need for change.

Eight demographic trends to watch

This list highlights eight demographic trends expected to shape the world in the coming decades. The world’s population is projected to hit 9 billion in 2037. In that time, India will overtake China in population, and the Democratic Republic of...

How public policy shapes demographic trends

This IMF podcast explores the population booms and busts throughout human history. According to Harvard economist and demographer David Bloom, it took more than 50,000 years for the world population to reach 1 billion. But since 1960, we have added...

Five charts that changed the world

Data visualization helps us understand the world, providing a powerful way to communicate complicated information in a quick and efficient way. There are many different ways to create graphs, and these five examples—the pie chart, geographic dot...

Charting 4,000 years of human history

Care to hang all of human history on your wall? This data visualization charts 4,000 years of humanity. This "histomap" was originally published in 1931 and sold for $1 per copy of the 5-foot-long chart. It was said to detail the course of...

As of 2022, scientists estimate that 117 billion people have been born on Earth

Although no demographic data exist for more than 99% of the time humans have existed, this value can be estimated by tracking approximate population sizes over different periods and the birth rates within those periods. In 2022, about 6.8% of humans that have ever been born were alive.

How the internet became the World Wide Web: a visualization

The internet was officially born in 1983 and had more than 150 million global users by 1997, creating an international web of seemingly separate networks. This data visualization shows the growth of the internet from 1997 to 2021. Data in this...

Roughly 10% of the world's population is older than 65 (2023 data)

With recent advances in medicine, sanitation, and nutrition, expected lifespans have rapidly risen around the globe—resulting in a rapidly aging global population. The worldwide distribution has seen a nearly 600% jump in the population of people aged 65 and older.

A map of the world's changing tree cover

As many of the world's tree species are at risk of extinction, keep track of the growth and decline of trees on Earth with this interactive map. Witness the state of forests worldwide by analyzing tree cover change on GFW’s interactive global forest map using satellite data. Learn about deforestation rates and other land use practices, forest fires, forest communities, biodiversity, and much more.

Visualizing the spread of five major religions across the world

Every major religion has a story that started in a specific place before growing to reach millions. This quick video depicts an illustrated map over the last 5,000 years, showing how Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam grew from their humble beginnings.

Data-packed infographic on Earth's oceans

Did you know more than 200 million people live on land that could be flooded by rising sea levels? Learn fascinating facts about the ocean from this data-filled infographic from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

See the global blindness burden by cause and continent

These charts show the estimated number of people worldwide with blindness due to cataract, glaucoma, refractive disorders, age-related macular degeneration, malaria, river blindness, trachoma, and other causes.

The latest data on US motherhood

Here’s a snapshot of what motherhood looks like in the U.S. today, drawn from government data and Pew Research Center surveys. The list includes seven headline statistics with visual graphs, including the average age of a mother's first childbirth...

Explore the rise (and fall) of baby names over time

Baby names popularity and trends in the acclaimed interactive graph of baby name popularity. Watch as baby name trends rise and fall over time.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Explore this week-by-week visualization of pregnancy

This graphic illustrates how development proceeds during each week of pregnancy, tracking what shifts and milestones typically occur during each stage of the process. It also includes typical weights of the fetus throughout.

Tracking annual working hours per worker in major countries

In 2023, China's workers averaged 2,328 hours per year, far ahead of the second country on the list, the United States, at 1,789. This chart shows the relative decrease of total work time across the world since the late 1800s.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

See how each of the more than two million known species relates to each other—and to common ancestors—in this zoomable tree of life.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

Watch how viruses like Ebola can spill over from animals to humans—and vice-versa.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

Calculate how much of your tax dollars go to each federal program based on your income, filing status, and number of children

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

One of the most famous portraits ever taken is 'Afghan Girl' (1984) by Steve McCurry, yet the subject Sharbat Gula went much of her life without being identified or benefitting from the image's success.

Meet the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence—most of whom didn't put pen to paper until August 2, 1776—and see their original signatures.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight