Population - Data package

This data package contains the data that powers the chart “Population” on the Our World in Data website. It was downloaded on April 18, 2025.

Active Filters

A filtered subset of the full data was downloaded. The following filters were applied:

CSV Structure

The high level structure of the CSV file is that each row is an observation for an entity (usually a country or region) and a timepoint (usually a year).

The first two columns in the CSV file are “Entity” and “Code”. “Entity” is the name of the entity (e.g. “United States”). “Code” is the OWID internal entity code that we use if the entity is a country or region. For normal countries, this is the same as the iso alpha-3 code of the entity (e.g. “USA”) - for non-standard countries like historical countries these are custom codes.

The third column is either “Year” or “Day”. If the data is annual, this is “Year” and contains only the year as an integer. If the column is “Day”, the column contains a date string in the form “YYYY-MM-DD”.

The final column is the data column, which is the time series that powers the chart. If the CSV data is downloaded using the “full data” option, then the column corresponds to the time series below. If the CSV data is downloaded using the “only selected data visible in the chart” option then the data column is transformed depending on the chart type and thus the association with the time series might not be as straightforward.

Metadata.json structure

The .metadata.json file contains metadata about the data package. The “charts” key contains information to recreate the chart, like the title, subtitle etc.. The “columns” key contains information about each of the columns in the csv, like the unit, timespan covered, citation for the data etc..

About the data

Our World in Data is almost never the original producer of the data - almost all of the data we use has been compiled by others. If you want to re-use data, it is your responsibility to ensure that you adhere to the sources’ license and to credit them correctly. Please note that a single time series may have more than one source - e.g. when we stich together data from different time periods by different producers or when we calculate per capita metrics using population data from a second source.

Detailed information about the data

Population (historical)

Population by country, available from 10,000 BCE to 2023, based on data and estimates from different sources. Last updated: July 15, 2024
Next update: July 2026
Date range: 10000 BCE – 2023 CE
Unit: people

How to cite this data

In-line citation

If you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:
HYDE (2023); Gapminder (2022); UN WPP (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

HYDE (2023); Gapminder (2022); UN WPP (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Population (historical)” [dataset]. PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, “History Database of the Global Environment 3.3”; Gapminder, “Population v7”; United Nations, “World Population Prospects”; Gapminder, “Systema Globalis” [original data]. Source: HYDE (2023); Gapminder (2022); UN WPP (2024) – with major processing by Our World In Data

Sources

PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency – History Database of the Global Environment

Retrieved on: 2024-01-02
Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.24416/UU01-AEZZIT

Gapminder – Population

Retrieved on: 2023-03-31
Retrieved from: http://gapm.io/dpop

United Nations – World Population Prospects

Retrieved on: 2024-07-11
Retrieved from: https://population.un.org/wpp/Download/

Gapminder – Systema Globalis

Retrieved on: 2023-03-31
Retrieved from: https://github.com/open-numbers/ddf–gapminder–systema_globalis

Notes on our processing step for this indicator

The population data is constructed by combining data from multiple sources:

10,000 BCE - 1799: Historical estimates by HYDE (v3.3).
1800 - 1949: Historical estimates by Gapminder (v7).
1950-2023: Population records by the UN World Population Prospects (2024 revision).