The average age in global comparison

The average age has risen in almost all countries since the World War II. In 1950, it was 23.9 years worldwide. In 2005, it was 28.1 years.
Among the 125 countries evaluated here, the USA are in 44th place with an average age of 38.5 years, led by Japan at 48.6 years. Niger has the lowest average age at only 14.8 years.

Median age by country

Country	Median age in years	Population under 20 years old	Life expectancy in years
Japan	48.6	16.8 %	84.8
Germany	47.8	18.9 %	81.0
Italy	46.5	17.6 %	82.5
Hong Kong *	45.6	16.5 %	85.7
Greece	45.3	18.5 %	81.2
Slovenia	44.9	19.6 %	80.6
Portugal	44.6	18.0 %	81.2
Austria	44.5	19.4 %	81.3
Lithuania	44.5	19.9 %	75.4
Latvia	44.4	21.5 %	75.9
Croatia	43.9	19.3 %	77.9
Spain	43.9	19.1 %	82.4
Bulgaria	43.7	19.4 %	73.8
Estonia	43.7	21.4 %	78.7
Hungary	43.6	19.5 %	75.9
Puerto Rico *	43.6	21.7 %	80.4
Serbia	43.4	21.1 %	74.4
Bosnia and Herzegovina	43.3	19.3 %	77.6
Czechia	43.3	20.5 %	78.3
South Korea	43.2	16.9 %	83.5
Finland	42.8	21.1 %	82.2
Netherlands	42.8	21.4 %	81.5
Switzerland	42.7	19.9 %	83.2
Romania	42.5	20.7 %	74.6
Malta	42.3	19.0 %	82.7
Cuba	42.1	21.3 %	78.9
Denmark	42.0	22.1 %	81.6
Poland	41.9	19.9 %	76.8
Canada	41.8	21.0 %	81.8
Slovakia	41.8	20.4 %	77.0
Virgin Islands *	41.8	25.5 %	80.1
France	41.7	23.5 %	82.3
Belgium	41.6	22.5 %	80.9
Ukraine	41.2	20.6 %	71.7
Sweden	41.1	23.1 %	82.4
Belarus	40.9	22.1 %	74.7
Macao *	40.8	18.0 %	84.5
United Kingdom	40.6	23.1 %	81.0
Russia	40.3	23.5 %	71.8
Luxembourg	39.5	21.0 %	81.8
Norway	39.5	23.1 %	83.2
Thailand	39.0	22.5 %	77.5
Georgia	38.6	25.8 %	74.1
United States	38.5	24.7 %	77.4
China	38.4	23.3 %	77.1
United Arab Emirates	38.4	19.2 %	78.1
Ireland	37.8	26.9 %	82.3
Australia	37.5	25.3 %	83.3
New Zealand	37.2	25.6 %	82.1
Mauritius	36.3	23.7 %	74.3
Singapore	35.6	16.8 %	83.7
Chile	35.5	25.4 %	80.3
North Korea	34.6	26.9 %	72.4
Albania	34.3	23.7 %	78.7
Qatar	33.7	17.7 %	80.0
Sri Lanka	33.7	31.2 %	77.2
Brazil	33.2	27.9 %	76.2
Bahrain	32.9	23.7 %	77.3
Costa Rica	32.6	27.6 %	80.5
Argentina	32.4	32.1 %	76.8
Turkey	32.2	31.6 %	77.9
Vietnam	31.9	29.8 %	75.5
Iran	31.7	31.4 %	76.9
Kazakhstan	31.6	35.4 %	71.4
Colombia	31.2	30.0 %	77.5
Brunei	31.1	29.4 %	76.0
Indonesia	31.1	34.0 %	71.9
Saudi Arabia	30.8	31.0 %	75.3
Israel	30.4	35.5 %	82.8
Venezuela	30.0	35.4 %	72.2
Mongolia	29.8	38.0 %	70.2
Kuwait	29.7	26.9 %	75.6
Mexico	29.3	34.1 %	75.2
Myanmar	29.2	34.3 %	67.4
Malaysia	29.2	31.3 %	76.4
Morocco	29.1	34.5 %	76.9
Algeria	28.9	37.7 %	77.1
Ecuador	28.8	35.9 %	77.3
India	28.7	34.8 %	69.9
South Africa	28.0	36.9 %	64.5
Bangladesh	27.9	35.6 %	73.0
El Salvador	27.7	35.1 %	73.7
Cambodia	26.4	39.4 %	70.0
Oman	26.2	27.5 %	77.8
Bolivia	25.3	39.4 %	71.8
Nepal	25.3	38.6 %	71.1
Egypt	24.1	42.3 %	72.2
Haiti	24.1	42.1 %	64.3
Philippines	24.1	39.0 %	71.5
Pakistan	22.0	44.5 %	67.4
Ghana	21.4	46.9 %	64.3
Iraq	21.2	47.6 %	70.7
Zimbabwe	20.5	52.4 %	61.7
Equatorial Guinea	20.3	45.7 %	59.0
Kenya	20.0	49.2 %	67.0
Yemen	19.8	49.1 %	66.2
Ethiopia	19.8	50.7 %	67.0
Rwanda	19.7	49.7 %	69.3
Timor-Leste	19.6	48.1 %	69.8
Afghanistan	19.5	53.1 %	65.2
Congo	19.5	51.5 %	64.8
Senegal	19.4	52.9 %	68.2
Sao Tome and Principe	19.3	52.8 %	70.6
Guinea	19.1	54.1 %	61.9
Sierra Leone	19.1	51.0 %	55.0
Nigeria	18.6	54.0 %	55.0
South Sudan	18.6	51.8 %	58.1
Cameroon	18.5	52.6 %	59.6
Somalia	18.5	57.4 %	57.7
Sudan	18.3	50.4 %	65.5
Tanzania	18.2	54.1 %	65.8
Guinea-Bissau	18.0	52.3 %	58.6
Liberia	18.0	51.0 %	64.4
Burkina Faso	17.9	55.2 %	61.9
Burundi	17.7	55.4 %	61.9
Benin	17.0	52.4 %	62.1
Mozambique	17.0	55.1 %	61.3
Zambia	16.9	55.1 %	64.2
Malawi	16.8	54.0 %	64.7
Congo (Dem. Republic)	16.7	56.3 %	61.0
Chad	16.1	57.5 %	54.5
Mali	16.0	58.0 %	59.7
Angola	15.9	57.0 %	61.6
Uganda	15.7	57.1 %	63.7
Niger	14.8	60.5 %	62.8

All figures are from the years 2018 to 2020.

Influences on the average age

Various factors have an influence on the age of a country's population. In economic nations and highly developed countries in particular, reliable nutrition and medical care leads to higher life expectancy and thus to an increase in the age of the population. A higher proportion of women also results in a slight increase, as women generally have a higher life expectancy.

However, the birth rate has the greatest influence. In almost all countries with higher incomes, the birth rate is remarkably low (cf. Population growth by country) and very high in poorer countries.
In most industrialized countries, for example, the lack of young people is currently causing the average age to rise, while in less developed countries, the age is stagnating or even falling.

* Dependent territories

The following countries are not sovereign states, but dependent territories or areas of other states:

Hong Kong: special administrative region of China
Macao: special administrative region of China
Puerto Rico: unincorporated territory of the US
Virgin Islands: self-governing territory of the US

Further information on the definition of a country can be found in our article, What is a country?

Data sources

Median age is published every five years by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The CIA's Factbook also lists these data. Life expectancy is based on data from the Population and Vital Statistics Report of the United Nations. All data are projections or estimates based on available population figures.

Comparison: Population growth by countryPopulation development since 1960 in global comparison

Average life expectancy by countryInternational ranking of life expectancy in 124 countries including summary by continents. Explanation of significant factors.

Comparison of the global population densityA juxtaposition of the population density in 92 countries. USA comes 82nd.