Population peak · UN WPP 2024
Every country has a year its population stops growing.
For most of history the only question was how fast we grew. Now every country has a ceiling — a year its population reaches its maximum and begins to fall. 65 have already passed theirs. Spin the globe or search your country to find its year.
Blue countries have already peaked — the darker the blue, the longer ago. Orange countries are still growing.
Peak year is the year of maximum population in the United Nations' medium projection (World Population Prospects 2024, 1950–2100). Projections are not predictions: the further out a peak sits, the more it can move. Borders are shown de-facto; disputed boundaries appear dashed and imply no endorsement of any territorial claim. Nine territories the UN reports separately have no shape in the Natural Earth 50m basemap and so cannot be drawn here.
The full story
Watch the documentary.
The map above is every country's ceiling. The video walks it — the 65 that have already peaked, the wave rolling across the century, and the year humanity itself stops growing. Three and a half minutes, one number.
▶ Watch on YouTube