Demographics

Animation: The Global Population Over 300 Years, by Country

Published

12 months ago

October 1, 2022

James Eagle

Featured Creator

Article/Editing:

Carmen Ang

Animation: The Global Population Over 300 Years, by Country

Since the 1800s, our global population has grown from 984 million people to almost 8 billion—an increase of more than 700%.

Which regions around the world have led this growth, and what’s expected for the rest of the century? This animated visualization by James Eagle shows 300 years of population growth, including historical figures as well as projections up to the year 2100.

Asia’s Current Dominance

For centuries, more than half of the world’s population has been concentrated in Asia. At certain points throughout history, the region has made up nearly 70% of the world’s population.

Here’s a look at 2021 figures, and how large each region’s population is relative to each other:

Rank	Region	% of Global Population (2021)
1	Asia	59.2%
2	Africa	17.9%
3	Europe	9.3%
4	North America	7.5%
5	South America	5.5%
6	Oceania	0.6%

China and India have been Asia’s largest population hubs, with China historically leading the front. In the 1950s China’s population was nearly double the size of India’s, but the gap has fluctuated over the years.

As China’s population growth continued, it was causing problems for the country as it struggled to scale up food production and infrastructure. By 1979, the Chinese government rolled out a one-child policy in an attempt to control the situation.

The program, which ended in 2016, had a number of unintended ramifications, but ultimately, it did succeed in slowing down the country’s population growth. And now, India is projected to overtake China as the world’s most populous country as early as 2023.

Africa’s Growing Piece of the Pie

Although Asia dominates the charts when it comes to overall population numbers currently, Africa’s growing population numbers are often overlooked.

While the continent’s total population is smaller than Asia’s, it will soon be home to the world’s largest working-age population, which could have a significant impact on the global economy in the years ahead.

This growth is being led by Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. With megacities like Lagos (metro population: 21 million) and over 217 million inhabitants in total, Nigeria is projected to be the world’s third most populous country by the year 2050. Nigeria’s rapid growth is largely thanks to its high birth rate, which is nearly double the global average.

This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.

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Countries

Charted: The World’s Biggest Oil Producers

Just three countries—the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Russia—make up the lion’s share of global oil supply. Here are the biggest oil producers in 2022.

Published

1 week ago

September 21, 2023

Pallavi Rao

A cropped chart with the per day production by the biggest oil producers in 2022.

Charted: The World’s Biggest Oil Producers in 2022

In 2022 oil prices peaked at more than $100 per barrel, hitting an eight-year high, after a full year of turmoil in the energy markets in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Oil companies doubled their profits and the economies of the biggest oil producers in the world got a major boost.

But which countries are responsible for most of the world’s oil supply? Using data from the Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute, we’ve visualized and ranked the world’s biggest oil producers.

Ranked: Oil Production By Country, in 2022

The U.S. has been the world’s biggest oil producer since 2018 and continued its dominance in 2022 by producing close to 18 million barrels per day (B/D). This accounted for nearly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.

Almost three-fourths of the country’s oil production is centered around five states: Texas, New Mexico, North Dakota, Alaska, and Colorado.

We rank the other major oil producers in the world below.

Rank	Country	2022 Production (Thousand B/D)	YoY Change	Share of World Supply
1	🇺🇸 U.S.	17,770	+6.5%	18.9%
2	🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia	12,136	+10.8%	12.9%
3	🇷🇺 Russia	11,202	+1.8%	11.9%
4	🇨🇦 Canada	5,576	+3.0%	5.9%
5	🇮🇶 Iraq	4,520	+10.2%	4.8%
6	🇨🇳 China	4,111	+2.9%	4.4%
7	🇦🇪 UAE	4,020	+10.4%	4.3%
8	🇮🇷 Iran	3,822	+4.6%	4.1%
9	🇧🇷 Brazil	3,107	+3.9%	3.3%
10	🇰🇼 Kuwait	3,028	+12.0%	3.2%
11	🇲🇽 Mexico	1,944	+0.9%	2.1%
12	🇳🇴 Norway	1,901	-6.3%	2.0%
13	🇰🇿 Kazakhstan	1,769	-2.0%	1.9%
14	🇶🇦 Qatar	1,768	+1.8%	1.9%
15	🇩🇿 Algeria	1,474	+8.9%	1.6%
16	🇳🇬 Nigeria	1,450	-11.2%	1.5%
17	🇦🇴 Angola	1,190	+1.1%	1.3%
18	🇱🇾 Libya	1,088	-14.3%	1.2%
19	🇴🇲 Oman	1,064	+9.6%	1.1%
20	🇬🇧 UK	778	-11.0%	0.8%
21	🇨🇴 Colombia	754	+2.4%	0.8%
22	🇮🇳 India	737	-3.8%	0.8%
23	🇻🇪 Venezuela	731	+8.1%	0.8%
24	🇦🇷 Argentina	706	+12.4%	0.8%
25	🇦🇿 Azerbaijan	685	-5.6%	0.7%
26	🇮🇩 Indonesia	644	-6.9%	0.7%
27	🇪🇬 Egypt	613	+0.8%	0.7%
28	🇲🇾 Malaysia	567	-1.7%	0.6%
29	🇪🇨 Ecuador	481	+1.7%	0.5%
30	🇦🇺 Australia	420	-5.2%	0.4%
31	🇹🇭 Thailand	331	-17.5%	0.4%
32	🇨🇩 Congo	269	-1.7%	0.3%
33	🇹🇲 Turkmenistan	244	+1.0%	0.3%
34	🇻🇳 Vietnam	194	-1.2%	0.2%
35	🇬🇦 Gabon	191	+5.4%	0.2%
36	🇸🇸 South Sudan	141	-7.6%	0.2%
37	🇵🇪 Peru	128	+0.5%	0.1%
38	🇹🇩 Chad	124	+6.2%	0.1%
39	🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea	119	-9.2%	0.1%
40	🇸🇾 Syria	93	-2.7%	0.1%
41	🇮🇹 Italy	92	-7.9%	0.1%
42	🇧🇳 Brunei	92	-13.8%	0.1%
43	🇾🇪 Yemen	81	-2.4%	0.1%
44	🇹🇹 Trinidad & Tobago	74	-3.6%	0.1%
45	🇷🇴 Romania	65	-6.2%	0.1%
46	🇩🇰 Denmark	65	-1.6%	0.1%
47	🇺🇿 Uzbekistan	63	-0.9%	0.1%
48	🇸🇩 Sudan	62	-3.3%	0.1%
49	🇹🇳 Tunisia	40	-12.9%	0.0%
50	Other CIS	43	+4.4%	0.0%
51	Other Middle East	210	+1.2%	0.2%
52	Other Africa	283	-3.4%	0.3%
53	Other Europe	230	-20.5%	0.2%
54	Other Asia Pacific	177	-10.6%	0.2%
55	Other S. & Cent. America	381	+68.5%	0.4%
	Total World	93,848	+4.2%	100.0%

Behind America’s considerable lead in oil production, Saudi Arabia (ranked 2nd) produced 12 million B/D, accounting for about 13% of global supply.

Russia came in third with 11 million B/D in 2022. Together, these top three oil producing behemoths, along with Canada (4th) and Iraq (5th), make up more than half of the entire world’s oil supply.

Meanwhile, the top 10 oil producers, including those ranked 6th to 10th—China, UAE, Iran, Brazil, and Kuwait—are responsible for more than 70% of the world’s oil production.

Notably, all top 10 oil giants increased their production between 2021–2022, and as a result, global output rose 4.2% year-on-year.

Major Oil Producing Regions in 2022

The Middle East accounts for one-third of global oil production and North America makes up almost another one-third of production. The Commonwealth of Independent States—an organization of post-Soviet Union countries—is another major regional producer of oil, with a 15% share of world production.

Region	2022 Production (Thousand B/D)	YoY Change	Share of World Supply
Middle East	30,743	+9.2%	32.8%
North America	25,290	+5.3%	27.0%
CIS	14,006	+0.9%	14.9%
Africa	7,043	-3.5%	7.5%
Asia Pacific	7,273	-1.4%	7.8%
South & Central America	6,361	7.2%	6.8%
Europe	3,131	-8.6%	3.3%

What’s starkly apparent in the data however is Europe’s declining share of oil production, now at 3% of the world’s supply. In the last 20 years the EU’s oil output has dropped by more than 50% due to a variety of factors, including stricter environmental regulations and a shift to natural gas.

Another lens to look at regional production is through OPEC members, which control about 35% of the world’s oil output and about 70% of the world’s oil reserves.

A pictogram of the regional per day production by the biggest oil producers in 2022.

When taking into account the group of 10 oil exporting countries OPEC has relationships with, known as OPEC+, the share of oil production increases to more than half of the world’s supply.

Oil’s Big Balancing Act

Since it’s the very lifeblood of the modern economy, the countries that control significant amounts of oil production also reap immense political and economic benefits. Entire regions have been catapulted into prosperity and wars have been fought over the control of the resource.

At the same time, the ongoing effort to pivot to renewable energy is pushing many major oil exporters to diversify their economies. A notable example is Saudi Arabia, whose sovereign wealth fund has invested in companies like Uber and WeWork.

However, the world still needs oil, as it supplies nearly one-third of global energy demand.