Photo: Ronald Valdes Balsells, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

The world in 1995

On 1 January 1995, 5.72 billion people were alive. During the year, 135 million children were born and 51.4 million people died.

In 2026 the world has 2.54 billion more people, 1.4 times as many.

The median age is 24.0. 32% of the people are under 15 and 6.4% are 65 or older.

Life expectancy at birth is 64.9 years, and women have 2.9 children on average at that year’s rates.

Countries with more than 100 million people: 10.

Population, 1 January 1995
5,717,157,466
Median age
24.0
Births in 1995
134,850,043
Deaths in 1995
51,406,890
Life expectancy at birth
64.9
Children per woman
2.89
Under 15
32.2%
65 and over
6.4%
Population pyramid, World, 1 January 1995MaleFemale0102030405060708090100+020M20M40M40M60M60M80M80M
Population pyramid, World, 1 January 1995

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The most populous countries

CountryPopulationUnder 1565 and over
China1,214,589,61727.7%6.0%
India950,631,60937.5%4.2%
United States266,864,96021.8%12.4%
Indonesia198,236,59733.5%4.4%
Brazil160,496,97133.1%4.6%
Russia148,382,44121.4%11.7%
Pakistan132,587,88144.5%3.4%
Japan125,516,49615.8%14.4%
Bangladesh121,477,23340.5%3.4%
Nigeria109,367,38444.5%3.1%

Development and urbanisation

IndicatorLatest valueYear
Living in cities37.0%1995
People using the internetnone observed–
Access to electricitynone observed–
Adult literacy (ages 15 and over)76.9%1995
none observed–
none observed–
none observed–
Human Development Index0.6251995

Values observed in 1995, 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).