Countries by Population, female

Ranking 2024

Analysis

This metric counts the total number of female residents in each country. Female population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all female residents regardless of legal status or citizenship. Values are expressed as absolute counts, and a higher number indicates a larger female population. The dataset covers 216 countries, with 100% of data points classified as official-quality and 100% sourced from 2024, the reference year. The range spans from 4,710 (Tuvalu, rank 216) to 702,612,364 (India, rank 1), a spread of over 14,917,360%. Twenty extreme outliers were identified at the 3-standard-deviation threshold, reflecting the extreme size differences between the largest and smallest countries in the dataset.

The top of the ranking is dominated by the world's most populous nations. India (rank 1) and China (rank 2) each exceed 690 million female residents, together accounting for a substantial share of the global female population. The United States ranks third at 169,230,152, followed by Indonesia at 141,080,015 (rank 4) and Pakistan at 123,835,758 (rank 5). Nigeria (rank 6, 115,005,707) and Brazil (rank 7, 107,703,455) are the only other countries above 100 million. The top ten is completed by Bangladesh (rank 8, 88,218,708), the Russian Federation (rank 9, 76,925,937), and Mexico (rank 10, 67,401,427). High absolute values in this ranking are a direct function of overall national population size.

The middle of the ranking contains considerable regional diversity. Germany (rank 19, 42,274,973) places ahead of Thailand (rank 20, 36,772,621) and France (rank 21, 35,318,894), while Tanzania (rank 23, 34,576,910) sits just behind the United Kingdom (rank 22, 35,138,272). Saudi Arabia ranks 53rd with 13,931,115, lower than its overall population size might suggest given its notably male-skewed migrant workforce composition visible in the data. Qatar (rank 151, 820,750) and the United Arab Emirates (rank 102, 3,965,934) also rank lower relative to their total populations for the same visible reason: their female counts are far below what would be expected for countries of their economic size. At the lower end, small island states and territories cluster from rank 161 onward, with Tuvalu (rank 216, 4,710) and Nauru (rank 215, 5,864) at the very bottom.

Absolute population counts do not reflect the share of females within a country's total population, so this ranking cannot be used to assess gender balance or sex ratios. Countries with large overall populations will always rank highly regardless of their male-to-female ratio. The de facto definition includes all residents regardless of legal status, but in practice, data collection methods vary across countries and may miss informal or displaced populations. Conflict-affected states such as Sudan (rank 30), Syria (rank 57), and South Sudan (rank 80) may have figures affected by displacement and incomplete enumeration. The dataset includes several non-sovereign territories such as Puerto Rico (rank 134), Hong Kong SAR (rank 101), and Guam (rank 184), which may not be directly comparable to sovereign states.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code SP.POP.TOTL.FE.IN, for the reference year 2024. The metric measures total female population using the de facto definition: female population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all female residents regardless of legal status or citizenship. Values are absolute counts. The dataset covers 216 countries, all with data from within the last seven years and 100% classified as official-quality, exceeding the 70% quality threshold. All 216 countries report data for 2024, giving 100% consistency for the latest year. The average year-over-year change across the dataset is 1.4%, well within the 50% volatility threshold. Twenty extreme outliers were detected at the 3-standard-deviation threshold, driven by the enormous size differences between the most and least populous countries. The value range runs from 4,710 to 702,612,364, a spread of over 14,917,360%. No microstates (defined as populations under 1 million) were flagged, as all 216 entries met or exceeded that threshold in total population terms.

Sources

• World Bank