Global Demographic Trends - Asia

Continuing our series on global demographic trends, in 2007 the top ten Asian countries by population excluding South Asia were:

1. China - 1.32 billion
2. Indonesia - 235 million
3. Japan - 127 million
4. Philippines - 91 million
5. Vietnam - 85 million
6. Thailand - 65 million
7. South Korea - 49 million
8. Burma - 47 million
9. Malaysia - 25 million
10. North Korea - 23 million

Jumping forward, the 2050 projections are:

1. China - 1.42 billion
2. Indonesia - 313 million
3. Philippines - 148 million
4. Vietnam - 108 million
5. Japan - 94 million
6. Thailand - 69 million
7. Burma - 54 million
8. South Korea - 45 million
9. Malaysia - 43 million
10. North Korea - 26 million

In the Asian case, we can clearly see the way in which population trends are diverging.

Japan and South Korea face population declines, while the populations of China and Thailand have begun to plateau. The size of the projected Malaysian increase came as a surprise. We would have expected it to be lower, given the country's level of economic development.

Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam all reflect current levels of economic development.

In the next post we will look at the Americas.

Note on Sources

Source data can be found at the introductory post.

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