Comparing the Populations of Europe and Africa Over Time

Africas population is projected to grow by almost 3,000% between 1900 and 2100

Populations intrigue me.

They change surprisingly fast at rates that varies significantly between different parts of the world.

Today, I wanted to hammer that point by comparing the populations of Europe and Africa over time.

We will look at both historical data and projections from the United Nations.

You probably know what to expect, but I think the numbers can surprise you anyway.

Let’s have a look.

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#1 Population ratios

To visualize how much the population of Africa has increased compared to that of Europe, I wanted a chart describing the ratio over time between the two.

The result shocked me.

• In 1900, 75% of the population in Africa and Europe lived in Europe.

• In 2024, that number had dropped to 33%

• By 2100, the UN projects that number to reach as low as 13%.

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#2 Absolute numbers

Ratios are interesting, but so are absolute numbers.

The European population:

• Started at 407 million in 1900

• Reached 745 million by 2024

• And is projected to drop to 592 million by 2100

Compare that to the African population which:

• Started at 139 million in 1900

• Reached 1.5 billion by 2024

• And is projected to reach 3.8 billion by 2100

That’s an increase by 2,633%

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#3 Projected growths

When I published the two chart above on Reddit, many people where sceptical about the growth of Africa.

They didn’t believe that Africa will continue to grow at the same rate as today.

Except, that’s not what the chart shows.

The growth rate does decline rapidly in the UN projections.

It just doesn’t look that way because the absolute numbers are so large compared to Europe.

To show that the growth rate declines, I created the following chart.

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#4 Thank you

Thank you for reading my newsletter and let me know what topics and datasets you want me to explore next.

I appreciate all feedback I can get on the data, content, and visualizations.

I want to create a newsletter that people want to read and your feedback is the most important information I can get right now.

Thanks again, and see you next time.