Country populations: 57 sourced records

What this topic measures

Population totals are midyear estimates, not a live population counter. The unit is people. This topic uses ratio scoring: a value half the target and a value twice the target are equally far away, so think in multiplicative bands rather than fixed steps.

A record is a named row in the frozen catalog, not necessarily a unique entity. Some topics contain several records with the same value, and a name round accepts any record at the closest distance. The table below is the complete answer set for this topic; there is no hidden shortlist.

All 57 records

Every row links to the original source used for that record. Values are rounded for display only; the scoring engine uses the stored source value. The snapshot date and unit are part of the topic’s definition, so a current live figure may differ.

The table has 57 rows, one for each accepted record. It does not list every alias or spelling variant; the game’s name matcher handles those at answer time. If two records share a value, both remain separate rows.

The range and the gaps

The 57 records run from 385,663 people to 1,438,069,596 people. The median is 45,538,401 people, with a middle half from 12,244,159 people to 100,352,192 people. The largest adjacent gap is 1,073,954,948 people between United States and China. Every record has a distinct value in this snapshot.

The highest listed records are India (1,438,069,596 people), China (1,410,710,000 people), United States (336,755,052 people). The lowest are Iceland (385,663 people), New Zealand (5,200,000 people), Ireland (5,311,538 people). Use these as anchors before you make a ratio or year estimate; the table below gives every value.

What the table does not tell you

These are single snapshot values in people for 2023 World Bank snapshot · 57 selected countries. The table is not a time series, a range of typical values or a measure of uncertainty. A source can round, revise or use a different definition in a later release; the game uses the stored snapshot for every score. Read the source and the record label before treating a value as a current live measurement.

How to estimate this topic

Population values are 2023 midyear estimates, not live counters. Use 1 million, 10 million, 100 million and 1 billion as bands. Country size and population are different topics: a large country can have a small population, so do not infer one from the other.

For a method that applies across topics, see the estimation guide. To practise this topic without changing a daily result, open the practice setup for Country populations. The setup opens first; it does not start a clock automatically.

Recent daily use

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Source, licence and snapshot

The listed source is World Bank · World Development Indicators ↗. Snapshot: 2026-10-24. Licence / attribution: CC BY 4.0.

We select and transform source records for independently written game rules. The source material remains subject to its original licence. If a value looks wrong, send the topic, record, expected value and source through the contact form; do not send passwords or account credentials.

Related topics

Country sizes (57 records) · City living (57 records) · GDP per person (57 records) · Life expectancy (57 records)

All 27 topics · Archive · Source attribution