Sources
Every series on this site comes from one of these producers. Licence and citation are reproduced from each provider’s terms.
UN World Population Prospects
The United Nations Population Division's World Population Prospects publishes estimates from 1950 and projections to 2100 for every country and region. This site uses the medium-variant projection of the current revision (2024) as its default source, and keeps earlier revisions to score how the projections changed.
- Scenario
- medium variant
- Vintages held
- UN 2010, UN 2012, UN 2015, UN 2017, UN 2019, UN 2022, UN 2024 (current)
- Licence
- CC BY 3.0 IGO
- API / CSV
- Available through the API and bulk exports.
- Citation
United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects.
United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2010 Revision.
United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2012 Revision.
United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2015 Revision.
United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2017 Revision.
United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2019 Revision.
United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2022 Revision.
World Bank World Development Indicators
The World Bank's World Development Indicators compile national statistics and international estimates; this site shows its series alongside the UN's as a comparison source.
- Vintages held
- Latest release
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- API / CSV
- Available through the API and bulk exports.
- Citation
World Bank. World Development Indicators.
Human Mortality Database
The Human Mortality Database (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, UC Berkeley, INED) publishes detailed mortality and life-expectancy series for countries with complete death registration; this site shows its life-expectancy series as a comparison source.
- Vintages held
- Latest release
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- API / CSV
- Available through the API and bulk exports.
- Citation
HMD. Human Mortality Database. MPIDR (Germany), UC Berkeley (USA), INED (France).
Wittgenstein Centre (WIC)
The Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (IIASA) publishes population and total-fertility-rate projections disaggregated by education level, aggregated here to national and world totals; three vintages are scored on the accuracy page (2013, 2018, 2023).
- Scenario
- SSP2 (Medium)
- Vintages held
- WIC 2013, WIC 2018, WIC 2023
- Licence
- Custom (IIASA/WIC, unconfirmed)
- API / CSV
- Shown on this site with attribution; not available through the API or bulk exports. The licence for this data is unconfirmed, so it is not redistributed until the Wittgenstein Centre confirms it may be.
- Citation
Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (WIC), Wittgenstein Centre Data Explorer Version 1.0, 2013.
Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (WIC), Wittgenstein Centre Data Explorer Version 2.0, 2018.
Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (WIC), Wittgenstein Centre Data Explorer Version 3.0 (Beta), 2023.
IHME
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) publishes a reference-scenario population and fertility forecast for 195 countries and territories through 2100 (Vollset et al., The Lancet, 2020); one vintage (2020) is scored on the accuracy page.
- Scenario
- reference
- Vintages held
- IHME 2020
- Licence
- IHME Free-of-Charge Non-Commercial User Agreement
- API / CSV
- Shown on this site with attribution; not available through the API or bulk exports. IHME's non-commercial user agreement does not permit offering its data for download from other sites without written permission.
- Citation
Vollset SE, et al. Fertility, mortality, migration, and population scenarios for 195 countries and territories from 2017 to 2100: a forecasting analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study. The Lancet. 2020.
U.S. Census Bureau (IDB)
The U.S. Census Bureau's International Database (IDB) publishes a single central population projection per country, with no named alternative scenarios; one vintage (2025) is scored on the accuracy page.
- Scenario
- central (single, no named alternatives)
- Vintages held
- Census 2025
- Licence
- Public domain (17 U.S.C. §105)
- API / CSV
- Available through the API and bulk exports.
- Citation
U.S. Census Bureau, International Database.