State 04 · UN WPP 2024 · 2024 projected

Sustained decline

Total population change—including net migration—has remained below the threshold for at least five consecutive years.

29countries and areas

3.2%of 2024 projected global population

264.04mpeople in the cohort


1	Bulgaria	Europe	36 years	24.8%2.23m people	1989	6,757,689
1	Serbia	Europe	36 years	14.6%1.15m people	1989	6,736,216
3	Northern Mariana Islands	Oceania	24 years	35.2%24.1k people	2001	44,278
3	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Latin America and the Caribbean	24 years	11.4%12.9k people	2001	100,616
5	American Samoa	Oceania	23 years	18.0%10.3k people	2002	46,765
5	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Europe	23 years	29.0%1.29m people	2002	3,164,253
5	United States Virgin Islands	Latin America and the Caribbean	23 years	21.8%23.7k people	2002	84,905
8	Wallis and Futuna Islands	Oceania	22 years	25.1%3.8k people	2003	11,277
9	North Macedonia	Europe	19 years	12.8%266.8k people	2006	1,823,009
10	Martinique	Latin America and the Caribbean	17 years	19.0%80.7k people	2008	343,195
11	Croatia	Europe	16 years	19.8%959.7k people	2009	3,875,325
12	Greece	Europe	14 years	9.7%1.08m people	2011	10,047,817
12	Japan	Asia	14 years	3.5%4.44m people	2011	123,753,041
12	Marshall Islands	Oceania	14 years	27.9%14.5k people	2011	37,548
12	Montserrat	Latin America and the Caribbean	14 years	66.1%8.6k people	2011	4,389
16	Cook Islands	Oceania	13 years	34.2%7.1k people	2012	13,729
17	Tuvalu	Oceania	12 years	—	2013	9,646
18	Italy	Europe	11 years	2.2%1.32m people	2014	59,342,867
18	Saint Martin (French part)	Latin America and the Caribbean	11 years	30.2%11.3k people	2014	26,129
20	Cuba	Latin America and the Caribbean	9 years	2.9%323.4k people	2016	10,979,783
20	Dominica	Latin America and the Caribbean	9 years	9.4%6.9k people	2016	66,205
20	Mauritius	Africa	9 years	1.6%21.1k people	2016	1,271,169
20	Saint Helena	Africa	9 years	21.8%1.5k people	2016	5,237
24	Albania	Europe	8 years	15.0%490.8k people	2017	2,791,765
24	Belarus	Europe	8 years	11.6%1.18m people	2017	9,056,696
26	Guadeloupe	Latin America and the Caribbean	7 years	10.9%45.8k people	2018	375,106
26	Saint Pierre and Miquelon	Northern America	7 years	12.6%808 people	2018	5,628
28	China, Taiwan Province of China	Asia	5 years	1.9%460.2k people	2020	23,213,962
28	Greenland	Northern America	5 years	1.9%1.1k people	2020	55,840

Population states are mutually exclusive and exhaustive. “Since” is the start of the current uninterrupted state or the first year the milestone is reached in the WPP series. The decline streak tracks total population change, not natural change: births, deaths, net migration, and WPP adjustments are included. Equal streaks share a competition rank; the next rank skips occupied positions. Rank describes duration, not severity. “Below peak” compares the 2024 population with the highest population in each country’s WPP series; sorting uses the percentage. Membership and population evidence are labeled separately.

SOURCE · UN WPP 2024 CHECKS PASSED · DETAILS⌄

Releasewpp2024

RevisionPOP/DB/WPP/Rev.2024/GEN/F01/Rev.1

Retrieved2026-06-25T11:25:03+00:00

LicenceCC BY 3.0 IGO

Formulapopulation-state-v2 · global-population-share-by-state-and-milestone-v1 · sustained-decline-streak-rank-v1 · population-below-peak-v1

Transformreproducible canonical pipeline

Measurement universeall 237 WPP country and area records in the canonical Register; streak rank compares the 29 canonical sustained-decline members only

Reference time2024 projected population; source observations through 2023

Unitcountry/area count · people · share of summed population · competition rank by total-population-change state streak · people below peak · percent of peak population

Evidence statusprojected cohort membership · projected population