History & Antiquity500 BCE–2025
World Population by Region
Twenty-five centuries of humanity, sorted by where people live. Asia leads from the start and never lets go, but the drama is beneath it: Europe's industrial surge, the twentieth-century population explosion, and Africa racing past Europe toward second place.
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Source: Angus Maddison, Colin McEvedy & Jones historical estimates; UN World Population Prospects Pre-1950 figures are demographers' estimates with wide error bands; 1950 onward follows UN World Population Prospects. Updated 2026-07-03