Demographics of Asia

Graph showing population by continent as a percentage of world population (1750 - 2005)

The continent of Asia covers 29.4% of the Earth's land area and has a population of around 4.75 billion (as of 2022^[update]),^[1] accounting for about 60% of the world population. The combined population of both China and India is estimated to be over 2.8 billion people as of 2022^[update]. Asia's population is projected to grow to 5.25 billion by 2055, or about 54% of projected world population at that time.^[1] Population growth in Asia was close to 0.55% p.a. as of 2022^[update], with highly disparate rates. Many Western Asian and South Asian countries have growth rates far above the world average, notably Pakistan at 2% p.a., and India with a 0.6% increase in 2022. On the other hand, East Asian nations are in the middle of a demographic stagnation, with China experiencing a small decrease of –0.06%, after years of rapidly slowing growth.

Population

History

Population of Asia, 1–1820 AD (in millions)

Source: Maddison et al.^[2]

Year^[2]	1	1000	1500	1600	1700	1820
China	59.6	59.0	103.0	160.0	138.0	381.0
India	75.0	75.0	110.0	135.0	165.0	209.0
Japan	3.0	7.5	15.4	18.5	27.0	31.0
Korea	1.6	3.9	8.0	10.0	12.2	13.8
Indonesia	2.8	5.2	10.7	11.7	13.1	17.9
Indochina	1.1	2.2	4.5	5.0	5.9	8.9
Other East Asia	5.9	9.8	14.4	16.9	19.8	23.6
Iran	4.0	4.5	4.0	5.0	5.0	6.6
Turkey	6.1	7.3	6.3	7.9	8.4	10.1
Other West Asia	15.1	8.5	7.5	8.5	7.4	8.5
Total Asia	174.2	182.9	283.8	378.5	401.8	710.4

Shares of world population, Asia, 1–1998 AD (percent of world total)

Source: Maddison et al.^[2]

Year^[2]	1	1000	1500	1600	1700	1820	1870	1913	1950	1973	1999
China	25.8	22.0	23.5	28.8	22.9	36.6	28.2	24.4	21.7	22.5	21.0
India	32.5	28.0	25.1	24.3	27.3	20.1	19.9	17.0	14.2	14.8	16.5
Japan	1.3	2.8	3.5	3.3	4.5	3.0	2.7	2.9	3.3	2.8	2.1
Other Asia	15.9	15.4	12.7	11.7	11.9	8.6	9.4	10.3	15.5	17.3	19.8
Total Asia (excluding Japan)	74.2	65.4	61.3	64.8	62.1	65.3	57.5	51.7	51.4	54.7	57.4
World	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

Countries ranking by international organisations

Life expectancy in Asia in 2019–2021, according to the World Bank Group

**2022 List by the World Bank**^[3]
Countries	Population (Thousands)	TFR	HDI
India	1,417,173.17	2.0	0.633
China	1,412,175.00	1.2	0.768
Indonesia	275,501.34	2.2	0.705
Pakistan	235,824.86	3.5	0.544
Bangladesh	171,186.37	2.0	0.661
Japan	125,124.99	1.3	0.925
Philippines	115,559.01	2.7	0.699
Vietnam	98,186.86	1.9	0.703
Iran	88,550.57	1.7	0.774
Turkey	85,341.24	1.9	0.838
Thailand	71,697.03	1.3	0.800
Myanmar	54,179.31	2.2	0.585
South Korea	51,628.12	0.8	0.925
Iraq	44,496.12	3.5	0.686
Afghanistan	41,128.77	4.6	0.478
Saudi Arabia	36,408.82	2.4	0.875
Uzbekistan	35,648.10	3.2	0.727
Malaysia	33,938.22	1.8	0.803
Yemen	33,696.61	3.8	0.455
Nepal	30,547.58	2.0	0.602
North Korea	26,069.42	1.8	NA
Sri Lanka	22,181.00	2.0	0.782
Syria	22,125.25	2.7	0.577
Kazakhstan	19,621.97	3.3	0.811
Cambodia	16,767.84	2.3	0.593
Jordan	11,285.87	2.8	0.720
Azerbaijan	10,175.02	1.5	0.745
Tajikistan	9,952.79	3.2	0.685
Israel	9,550.60	3.0	0.919
United Arab Emirates	9,441.13	1.5	0.911
Laos	7,529.48	2.5	0.607
Hong Kong (China)	7,346.10	0.8	0.952
Kyrgyzstan	6,803.30	2.9	0.692
Turkmenistan	6,430.77	2.7	0.745
Singapore	5,637.02	1.1	0.939
Lebanon	5,489.74	2.1	0.706
Oman	4,576.30	2.6	0.816
Kuwait	4,268.87	2.1	0.831
Georgia	3,712.50	2.1	0.802
Mongolia	3,398.37	2.8	0.739
Armenia	2,780.47	1.6	0.759
Qatar	2,695.12	1.8	0.855
Bahrain	1,472.23	1.8	0.875
East Timor	1,341.30	3.1	0.607
Cyprus	1,251.49	1.3	0.896
Bhutan	782.46	1.4	0.666
Macau (China)	695.17	1.1	NA
Maldives	523.79	1.7	0.747
Brunei	449.00	1.8	0.829
Asia	4,682,346.46	1.89	0.70
Population Replacement		2.1

Economy

Economically, most of Asia is traditionally considered part of the Second World, with the significant exception of the industrialized First World countries of Israel, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Asian countries in the G-20 major economies include China, Japan, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Of these, Japan is also in the G8, and additionally China and India in the G8+5.

The Human Development Index of Asian countries range from Low to Very High category. The table below shows the 10 highest and lowest countries according to their Human Development Index scores based on the 2021 report.^[4]

10 highest HDIs

Rank	Country	HDI
Rank	Country	2018 data (2019 report) rankings
Very high human development
1	Hong Kong	0.952
2	Singapore	0.939
3	Japan	0.925
4	South Korea	0.925
5	Israel	0.919
6	United Arab Emirates	0.911
7	Cyprus	0.896
8	Saudi Arabia	0.875
9	Bahrain	0.875
10	Qatar	0.855

10 lowest HDIs

Rank	Country	HDI
Rank	Country	2018 data (2019 report) rankings
Low human development
1	Yemen	0.455
2	Afghanistan	0.478
3	Pakistan	0.544
Medium human development
4	Syria	0.577
5	Myanmar	0.585
6	Cambodia	0.593
7	Nepal	0.602
8	East Timor	0.607
9	Laos	0.607
10	India	0.633