Photo: Ronald Valdes Balsells, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

The world in 1993

On 1 January 1993, 5.55 billion people were alive. During the year, 136 million children were born and 50.8 million people died.

In 2026 the world has 2.71 billion more people, 1.5 times as many.

The median age is 23.5. 33% of the people are under 15 and 6.3% are 65 or older.

Life expectancy at birth is 64.4 years, and women have 3.0 children on average at that year’s rates.

Countries with more than 100 million people: 10.

Population, 1 January 1993
5,549,144,549
Median age
23.5
Births in 1993
135,632,145
Deaths in 1993
50,831,804
Life expectancy at birth
64.4
Children per woman
2.98
Under 15
32.6%
65 and over
6.3%
Population pyramid, World, 1 January 1993MaleFemale0102030405060708090100+020M20M40M40M60M60M80M80M
Population pyramid, World, 1 January 1993

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The most populous countries

CountryPopulationUnder 1565 and over
China1,191,200,57428.3%5.6%
India912,540,84838.0%4.1%
United States261,181,80221.9%12.4%
Indonesia191,663,27734.6%4.2%
Brazil155,556,11334.2%4.4%
Russia148,251,81622.2%11.1%
Pakistan125,131,94844.4%3.4%
Japan124,622,69116.6%13.4%
Bangladesh117,055,59641.6%3.5%
Nigeria103,740,09544.9%3.1%

Development and urbanisation

IndicatorLatest valueYear
Living in cities36.1%1993
People using the internetnone observed–
Access to electricitynone observed–
Adult literacy (ages 15 and over)76.0%1993
none observed–
none observed–
none observed–
Human Development Index0.6171993

Values observed in 1993, or in the closest earlier year within five years, shown with that year. The share in cities is a UN estimate to 2025 and a projection after. Sources: World Bank WDI, UNDP HDR, UN WUP 2025.

Sources: World Population Prospects 2024, UN DESA Population Division (CC BY 3.0 IGO).