European nations currently lead as countries with the most people aged 65+, but their increases through the century are projected to be slower and less extreme.
On the other hand, China is projected to move from outside the top ranks in 2025 to the world’s 3rd most senior-heavy population by 2100.
The world has entered a demographic transition that it’s never quite contended with before.
As fertility rates fall and longevity rises, the share of people aged 65 and over is climbing rapidly.
This visualization ranks the nations—having a population of at least one million—with the biggest senior populations today. It also shows how that lineup is set to change by 2100.
Data for this visualization is sourced from the UN World Population Prospects, which tracks and projects the share of adults aged 65+ in every country.
The UN makes these estimates under their medium term variant, with assumptions about birth and death rates and net migration.
Regions are denoted by the United Nations Geoscheme.
Rank Countries With Most
Seniors in 2025 % Share of Population
Aged 65+ (2025) Countries With Most
Seniors in 2050 % Share of Population
Aged 65+ (2050)
1 🇯🇵 Japan 30.0% đź‡đź‡° Hong Kong 46.3%
2 🇵🇷 Puerto Rico 25.3% 🇵🇷 Puerto Rico 36.9%
3 🇮🇹 Italy 25.1% 🇬🇷 Greece 34.6%
4 🇵🇹 Portugal 24.9% 🇧🇦 Bosnia &
Herzegovina 34.0%
5 🇬🇷 Greece 24.4% 🇵🇹 Portugal 33.1%
6 🇫🇮 Finland 24.2% 🇲🇨 Monaco 32.4%
7 🇩🇪 Germany 23.7% 🇸🇮 Slovenia 31.8%
8 đź‡đź‡° Hong Kong 23.7% 🇹🇼 Taiwan 31.7%
9 đź‡đź‡· Croatia 23.6% 🇰🇷 South Korea 31.7%
10 🇷🇸 Serbia 23.1% 🇦🇹 Austria 30.8%
11 🇧🇦 Bosnia &
Herzegovina 22.9% đź‡đź‡· Croatia 30.7%
12 🇫🇷 France 22.5% 🇨🇠Switzerland 30.2%
13 🇧🇬 Bulgaria 22.2% 🇨🇺 Cuba 30.2%
14 🇸🇮 Slovenia 22.2% 🇸🇰 Slovakia 30.1%
15 🇱🇻 Latvia 22.2% 🇪🇪 Estonia 29.9%
16 🇪🇪 Estonia 21.8% 🇨🇿 Czechia 29.6%
17 🇪🇸 Spain 21.6% 🇧🇬 Bulgaria 29.4%
18 🇨🇿 Czechia 21.2% 🇯🇵 Japan 29.4%
19 đź‡đź‡ş Hungary 21.2% 🇮🇹 Italy 29.1%
20 🇩🇰 Denmark 21.1% 🇷🇸 Serbia 29.1%
21 🇦🇹 Austria 21.1% 🇱🇻 Latvia 29.0%
22 🇧🇪 Belgium 21.0% 🇱🇹 Lithuania 28.7%
23 🇸🇪 Sweden 20.9% 🇪🇸 Spain 28.7%
24 🇳🇱 Netherlands 20.9% 🇫🇮 Finland 28.3%
25 🇵🇱 Poland 20.8% 🇦🇱 Albania 27.9%
N/A 🌍 World 10.4% 🌍 World 13.1%
Rank Countries With Most
Seniors in 2075 % Share of Population
Aged 65+ (2075) Countries With Most
Seniors in 2100 % Share of Population
Aged 65+ (2100)
1 đź‡đź‡° Hong Kong 59.1% đź‡đź‡° Hong Kong 61.0%
2 🇵🇷 Puerto Rico 52.7% 🇵🇷 Puerto Rico 52.4%
3 🇰🇷 South Korea 47.4% 🇨🇳 China 45.8%
4 🇸🇬 Singapore 44.0% 🇰🇷 South Korea 45.2%
5 🇹🇼 Taiwan 42.9% 🇦🇱 Albania 42.8%
6 🇨🇳 China 42.0% 🇨🇱 Chile 42.1%
7 🇦🇱 Albania 41.9% 🇹🇼 Taiwan 41.8%
8 🇨🇱 Chile 39.5% 🇺🇦 Ukraine 41.8%
9 🇺🇦 Ukraine 39.0% 🇸🇬 Singapore 40.6%
10 🇨🇷 Costa Rica 37.6% 🇨🇷 Costa Rica 40.5%
11 🇵🇱 Poland 37.1% 🇵🇱 Poland 39.1%
12 🇯🇵 Japan 37.1% 🇱🇹 Lithuania 39.0%
13 🇧🇦 Bosnia &
Herzegovina 36.7% 🇨🇺 Cuba 38.6%
14 🇮🇹 Italy 36.7% 🇽🇰 Kosovo 38.4%
15 🇱🇹 Lithuania 36.4% 🇲🇰 North Macedonia 37.9%
16 🇪🇸 Spain 35.6% 🇹🇷 Türkiye 37.8%
17 🇨🇺 Cuba 35.6% 🇺🇾 Uruguay 37.5%
18 🇯🇲 Jamaica 35.0% 🇧🇦 Bosnia &
Herzegovina 37.5%
19 🇹🇠Thailand 34.8% 🇮🇹 Italy 37.5%
20 🇽🇰 Kosovo 34.5% 🇯🇵 Japan 37.4%
21 🇬🇷 Greece 34.0% 🇯🇲 Jamaica 36.6%
22 🇺🇾 Uruguay 34.0% 🇪🇸 Spain 36.3%
23 đź‡đź‡· Croatia 33.8% 🇱🇻 Latvia 36.1%
24 🇲🇰 North Macedonia 33.3% đź‡đź‡· Croatia 35.9%
25 🇨🇾 Cyprus 32.8% 🇬🇷 Greece 35.9%
N/A 🌍 World 21.0% 🌍 World 23.9%
Other East Asian countries like South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore also surge, each pushing past the 40% threshold by century’s end.
Much like what’s happened in Europe, this aging sprint is driven by historically low fertility rates coupled with swift improvements in life expectancy.
Unlike Europe, immigration from younger countries, is (so far) not providing a moderating effect.
How Immigration is Helping Europe
Across Europe, inflows of migrants are already cushioning the region’s demographic squeeze.
Eurostat modeling shows that, without immigration, the EU’s population would shrink by up to one-third by 2100, versus just 6% in its baseline outlook.
In fact, recent gains in countries such as Spain and Germany have been almost entirely migration-driven. And the European Parliament warns that closing the gates would accelerate the rise in the old-age dependency ratio.
The OECD reaches the same conclusion. They say that expanding legal migration is one of the few realistic levers for slowing Europe’s march toward a 50% or higher retiree-to-worker ratio.
East Asia Contends With Migrants
Meanwhile, East Asia, remains one of the least-open regions to immigration.
Foreign-born residents make up barely 3% of Japan’s population and just over 5% of South Korea’s, with even lower shares in China and Taiwan.
Policy debate over large-scale immigration is limited, and cultural homogeneity is often prized.
Experts convened by Asia Society (linked above) note that, absent a turnaround, these low inflows leave East Asian societies locked into the steepest aging trajectories.
Yet those forecasts are not set in stone. In 2024 South Korea logged its first uptick in births in nine years. Deliveries rose 3.6% and fertility edged up to 0.75.
Thus, a meaningful change in sentiment around migration, or a sustained rebound in fertility, could easily reshape this 2100 outlook.
Credit: VisualCapitalist.com
