Which country has the most babies?
India with about 23.2 million births in 2024 — 17.5% of every baby born on Earth, and more than 2.6 times as many as China in second place.
- 63,480born in India each day
- 44each minute
- 17.5%of all births worldwide
- 1.96children per woman
The top ten
| # | Country | Births | Share | Children per woman |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | India | 23,200,000 | 17.5% | 1.96 |
| 2 | China | 8,830,000 | 6.7% | 1.01 |
| 3 | Nigeria | 7,560,000 | 5.7% | 4.38 |
| 4 | Pakistan | 6,890,000 | 5.2% | 3.55 |
| 5 | Indonesia | 4,470,000 | 3.4% | 2.12 |
| 6 | DR Congo | 4,470,000 | 3.4% | 5.98 |
| 7 | Ethiopia | 4,160,000 | 3.1% | 3.91 |
| 8 | United States | 3,650,000 | 2.8% | 1.62 |
| 9 | Bangladesh | 3,470,000 | 2.6% | 2.14 |
| 10 | Brazil | 2,570,000 | 1.9% | 1.61 |
It has not always been India
The country where most of the world's babies are born has changed hands. Each row below is read from the estimates for that year — and for the earlier ones, remember that these are modern borders applied to a world that had no such countries in it.
| Year | Most births | Estimated births | Share of world |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 CE | India | ~3.04M | 33% |
| 500 CE | India | ~3.79M | 37% |
| 1000 | India | ~4.54M | 34% |
| 1500 | India | ~5.29M | 26% |
| 1800 | China | ~12.7M | 32% |
| 1900 | China | ~15.3M | 23% |
| 1950 | China | 22.3M | 24% |
| 2000 | India | 29.1M | 21% |
| 2024 | India | 23.2M | 18% |
India through time
Related questions
Figures on this page are generated from the same dataset the map draws, and update whenever it does. See the methodology for how each era is estimated and how much it should be trusted.