Demographics of Asia

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

Map of countries by population density

The continent of Asia covers 29.4% of the Earth's land area and has a population of around 4.5 billion (as of 2015^[update]), accounting for about 60% of the world population. The combined population of both China and India are estimated to be over 2.7 billion people as of 2015^[update]. Asia's population is projected to grow to 5.26 billion by 2050, or about 54% of projected world population at that time. Population growth in Asia was close to 1.2% p.a. as of 2015^[update], with highly disparate rates. Many West Asian countries have growth rates above 2% p.a., notably Pakistan at 2.4% p.a., while China has a growth rate below 0.5% p.a..

Population

History

Population of Asia, 1–1820 A.D. (million)

Source: Maddison et al.

Shares of World Population, Asia, 1–1998 A.D. (per cent of world total)

Source: Maddison et al.

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 2019 report.

Ethnicities

The language families of Asia

• Central Asian peoples: Turkic peoples, Iranian peoples
• East Asian peoples: List of Chinese ethnic groups (historical), Sino-Tibetan peoples, Japanese people, Koreans, Mongols
• South Asian peoples: Ethnic groups of India, Ethnic groups in Pakistan, Dravidians, Indo-Aryans, Munda people
• Southeast Asian peoples: Austronesian peoples, Tai peoples; List of ethnic groups in Cambodia, ethnic groups in Indonesia, List of ethnic groups in Laos, Ethnic groups of the Philippines, List of ethnic groups in Vietnam
• West Asian peoples: Arab people, Jews, Samaritans, Druze, Peoples of the Caucasus (transcontinental), Ethnic minorities in Iran, Ethnic minorities in Iraq; Iranian peoples, Turkmen, Turks

External links

• World Population: Major Trends