The world is home to more young people than at any point in recorded history, roughly 1.2 billion people aged 15 to 24 under the United Nations’ official definition, or 1.8 billion under the broader 10-to-24 age band UNFPA uses in its own flagship youth reporting.
Either way, the concentration of that population is startlingly uneven: 87 percent of the world’s youth live in developing countries, and Sub-Saharan Africa’s median age, just 18, is a full seven years younger than South Asia’s, the next-youngest major region.
How Many Young People Are There Worldwide?
Youth statistics require the same definitional care as child population figures, because different institutions use different age bands for essentially the same concept.
The United Nations’ official definition, adopted during preparations for the 1985 International Youth Year, sets youth as ages 15 to 24, a band that held approximately 1.2 billion people as of recent UN Population Division data, equal to roughly 16 to 18 percent of the global population depending on the year measured.
UNFPA’s own flagship demographic reporting instead uses a wider 10-to-24 band, describing “young people,” which captured approximately 1.8 billion people as of its most recent major report, a figure that includes both the UN’s youth definition and an additional 600 million adolescent girls and boys aged 10 to 14.
Both figures are accurate; they simply measure different age spans, and any comparison between sources should first confirm which definition is being used.
Global Youth Population by Definition
| Definition | Age Range | Approximate Global Population | Share of World Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| UN official “youth” | 15 to 24 | approximately 1.2 billion | 16 to 18% |
| UNFPA “young people” | 10 to 24 | approximately 1.8 billion | approximately 23 to 24% |
Source: United Nations Population Division youth demographic presentations; UNFPA, State of World Population 2014, “The Power of 1.8 Billion.”
Where Are Young People Most Concentrated?
Geographic distribution of the world’s youth mirrors the broader concentration of global population growth in developing regions. According to UN Programme on Youth data, 87 percent of the world’s 15-to-24 population lives in developing countries, with 62 percent concentrated in Asia alone and a further 17 percent in Africa.
Historical comparison shows how dramatically this population has grown: in 1950, when the world’s total population stood at just 2.5 billion, there were only 721 million people aged 10 to 24 worldwide, meaning that age band has grown roughly two and a half times faster than the world’s total population growth over the same period.
Regional Distribution of Global Youth Population (Ages 15 to 24)
| Region | Approximate Share of Global Youth Population |
|---|---|
| Asia | 62% |
| Africa | 17% |
| All developing regions combined | 87% |
| Developed countries | approximately 13% |
Source: United Nations Programme on Youth presentation materials, based on UN Population Division data.
Which Countries Have the Highest Youth Shares?
Median age offers the clearest single measure for comparing how young a country’s overall population structure is, and the ranking is dominated overwhelmingly by African nations.
Niger holds the youngest median age of any country in the world, at just 15 years old, meaning half its population is younger than 15, a threshold even below the standard youth age band itself. The 21 youngest countries in the world are all located in Africa, including Uganda, Angola, and Mali, each with a median age of around 16 years.
Outside Africa, the youngest populations are found in Palestine, with a median age of 19.5 in Gaza and 21.9 in the West Bank, followed by Afghanistan at 20 years, Timor-Leste at 20.6 years, and Papua New Guinea at 21.7 years; most of these driven by a combination of high fertility and, in several cases, the demographic aftershocks of prolonged conflict.
Youngest Countries in the World by Median Age
| Rank | Country | Median Age |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niger | 15.1 years |
| 2 | Uganda | approximately 16 years |
| 3 | Angola | approximately 16 years |
| 4 | Mali | approximately 16 years |
| 5 (outside Africa) | Palestine (Gaza) | 19.5 years |
| 6 | Afghanistan | 20 years |
| 7 | Timor-Leste | 20.6 years |
| 8 | Papua New Guinea | 21.7 years |
Source: Statista, compiled from UN Population Division and World Population Prospects data on median age by country.
By contrast, the oldest countries, including Japan, Italy, Spain, and Germany, have median ages between 47 and 50 years, a gap of more than 30 years separating the world’s youngest and oldest national populations measured by the same statistic.
Why Some Countries Have Very Young Populations
A very young population structure, like Niger’s, results from the interaction of sustained high fertility and a population still early in its demographic transition. Niger’s high fertility rate has been closely linked by the World Bank to poverty, limited female education, and continued high rates of child marriage, all factors that reinforce each other and slow the transition toward lower fertility that has already occurred in most of the rest of the world.
Where very young populations exist outside the African fertility pattern, as in Gaza, the West Bank, and Afghanistan, prolonged conflict and instability are typically cited alongside fertility as contributing factors, since conflict can disrupt both the education and economic development pathways that elsewhere have accompanied fertility decline.
Youth and the Future Workforce
Africa’s youth population is not merely large; it is on a distinctly steep growth trajectory relative to the rest of the world. Africa’s youth population is projected to grow by 42 percent by 2030 compared to 2015 levels, according to research on youth in Africa, and by 2045, the number of young people on the continent overall is set to double.
Whether that growth translates into economic opportunity or economic strain depends almost entirely on whether education and job markets can expand fast enough to absorb each new, larger cohort as it reaches working age, a challenge the World Bank has specifically flagged for Sub-Saharan Africa given the existing structure of many regional economies and the reality that today’s youth are generally better educated than their parents, raising the practical question of where these more-educated young workers will find suitably skilled employment.
Youth, Urbanization and Migration
Young populations and rapid urbanization tend to reinforce each other in developing regions, since young adults are disproportionately likely to migrate from rural areas to cities in search of education and employment opportunities unavailable locally, a pattern that has historically concentrated much of the youngest working-age population in rapidly growing urban centers across Africa and South Asia.
This dynamic connects directly to the broader urbanization trends discussed in global demographic literature, where the world’s fastest-growing cities are disproportionately located in the same high-youth-share countries that top the median-age rankings above.
How the Global Youth Population Is Changing
The trajectory of the world’s youth population diverges sharply by region going forward. UN Population Division analysis from 2011 projected that the number of countries experiencing rapidly rising youth populations would fall substantially between the 1990-to-2010 period and the 2010-to-2030 period, most sharply in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, while the number of countries with actually declining youth populations, aged 15 to 24, was projected to rise significantly across the same regions and time frame, a direct reflection of falling fertility working its way up through the age structure.
Africa stood apart in this analysis as the region where rapidly rising youth populations were expected to persist longest, consistent with the continent’s position earlier in the demographic transition relative to Asia and Latin America.
Youth and the Demographic Dividend
A large working-age youth population creates economic potential, described by demographers as a demographic dividend, but UNFPA’s own reporting is explicit that this potential is conditional rather than automatic. The State of World Population 2014 report specifically identified 59 countries as poised to realize a demographic dividend if they invest appropriately in their young populations, citing South Korea’s history of government investment in education, health, and job-creating economic policy over the past half century as a successful precedent.
Without such investment, a large youth cohort risks becoming a source of unemployment and social strain rather than economic acceleration, which is why UNFPA frames the demographic dividend explicitly as an opportunity contingent on policy choices, not a guaranteed outcome of favorable age structure alone.
Conclusion
The world’s youth population, whether measured as the UN’s 1.2 billion aged 15 to 24 or UNFPA’s broader 1.8 billion aged 10 to 24, represents the largest cohort of young people in human history, and its geographic concentration is only intensifying: Africa’s youth numbers are set to double by 2045 even as youth populations plateau or shrink across most of Asia, Latin America, and the developed world.
Whether that concentration becomes an economic asset or a source of strain rests on the same conditional logic UNFPA identified over a decade ago, that a demographic dividend requires deliberate investment in education, health, and employment, not merely a favorable age structure on its own.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How many young people are there in the world?
Under the UN’s official 15-to-24 youth definition, approximately 1.2 billion people, or roughly 16 to 18 percent of the world’s population. Under UNFPA’s broader 10-to-24 “young people” definition, the figure rises to approximately 1.8 billion.
2. What age range counts as youth?
The United Nations officially defines youth as ages 15 to 24, a definition set during preparations for the 1985 International Youth Year, though UNFPA’s major demographic reports often use a broader 10-to-24 band called “young people,” and individual regions and countries may apply their own definitions.
3. Which countries have the largest youth populations?
By absolute numbers, large, populous developing countries dominate, since 87 percent of the world’s youth live in developing regions and 62 percent live in Asia alone, though the specific country rankings shift over time as regional fertility rates change.
4. Which countries have the youngest populations?
Niger has the youngest median age in the world at 15.1 years, and all of the 21 youngest countries globally are in Africa, including Uganda, Angola, and Mali, each with a median age around 16 years.
5. Why does Africa have such a young population?
Sub-Saharan Africa’s median age of 18 reflects fertility rates that remain well above the global average combined with a population structure earlier in its demographic transition than Asia or Latin America, compounded in some countries by factors like limited female education and continued child marriage.
6. What is the demographic dividend?
It is the potential for accelerated economic growth when a country’s working-age population is proportionally larger than its dependent population, but UNFPA emphasizes this potential is only realized through sufficient investment in youth education, health, and job creation, not automatically from age structure alone.
7. How is the youth population expected to change in the future?
UN Population Division projections show the number of countries with rapidly rising youth populations declining sharply in Asia and Latin America between 1990-2010 and 2010-2030, while Africa is expected to see rapid youth population growth persist longest among major regions.
8. How many young people live in developing countries?
Approximately 87 percent of the world’s 15-to-24 population lives in developing countries, according to UN Programme on Youth data, with only about 13 percent living in developed countries.
9. Is the world’s youth population still growing?
The number of young people aged 10 to 24 has grown from 721 million in 1950 to roughly 1.8 billion today, though growth rates are slowing in most regions outside Africa as global fertility continues declining.
10. Which non-African countries have the youngest populations?
Outside Africa, the youngest populations are found in Palestine, with a median age of 19.5 in Gaza and 21.9 in the West Bank, followed by Afghanistan at 20 years, Timor-Leste at 20.6 years, and Papua New Guinea at 21.7 years.
Sources
- United Nations Population Fund, State of World Population 2014, “The Power of 1.8 Billion”
- United Nations Population Division, “Demographic Dynamics of Youth” presentation, 2011
- United Nations Programme on Youth, UNPY presentation on global youth statistics
- Statista, Youngest Countries and Territories by Median Age
- Wikipedia/World Bank sourced data, “Youth in Africa”
