Smallest Countries in the World by Population 1950-2024

This bar chart race shows the smallest countries in the world by population, from 1950 to 2024.

* Countries and their flags are shown as they exist today. A country is defined here as widely recognized today as a sovereign state and/or independent.

Excluded as a country of relevance:
- Holy See: While the city-state (Vatican City) is a sovereign entity, it is not considered a country in traditional sense.
- Constitutent countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten).
- Unincorporated territories of the United States (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, United States Virgin Islands)
- French overseas territories (Réunion, Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Polynesia, French Guiana, Mayotte, New Caledonia, Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Wallis and Futuna)
- Autonomous territories within Kingdom of Denmark (Faroe Islands and Greenland).
- British overseas territories (Bermuda, Gibraltar, Falkland Islands etc.), and Crown Dependency entities like Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Shetland.
- Tokelau and Niue within the Realm of New Zealand. Cook Islands operates with a high degree of autonomy and conducts its own foreign affairs and international relations to some extent. Cook Islands is included here, but that is also disputable.

Data source: World Population Prospects, UN.

Data visualization created with flourish.studio https://flourish.studio