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Ever wondered what the world looked like, population-wise, back in 1900? An impressive cartogram by TeaDranks brings world history to life by resizing countries based on their population over a century ago. Each square equals 500,000 people, creating a distorted but revealing picture of the global human footprint before the seismic shifts of war, decolonization, and industrial boom.
The numbers for the map come from the Clio Infra dataset, a rich repository of long-term global demographic and economic data.
What jumps out? Many of the most populous places weren’t modern nations but sprawling empires—multi-ethnic political giants that stitched together diverse regions under one flag. Here’s how some of the largest looked in 1900:
Qing Empire: 415 million
Indian Empire (British Raj): 271.3 million
Russian Empire: 135.3 million (incl. Russia 67.4m, Poland 38m, Finland 2.6m)
United States: 76 million
German Empire: 56 million
Austria-Hungary: 51.3 million
Japan: 42 million
United Kingdom: 38 million
France: 38 million
Italy: 32 million
But what if these empires had remained intact? What would their populations be today? Using recent data from the World Bank, curiosity-driven, I added up the 2023 populations of modern countries that once formed each empire.
Then and Now: Population Comparison Table
Historical Entity
Population (1900)
Modern Equivalent Countries
Combined 2023 Population
% Change Since 1900
Qing Empire
415,000,000
China
1,425,000,000
+243%
Indian Empire (UK)
271,300,000
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar
1,830,000,000
+574%
Russian Empire
135,300,000
Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Baltics, etc.
370,000,000
+173%
United States
76,000,000
United States
333,000,000
+338%
German Empire
56,000,000
Germany, parts of Poland, Alsace
83,000,000
+48%
Austria-Hungary
51,300,000
Austria, Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, Croatia, etc.
92,000,000
+79%
Japan
42,000,000
Japan
124,000,000
+195%
United Kingdom
38,000,000
United Kingdom
67,000,000
+76%
France
38,000,000
France
68,000,000
+79%
Italy
32,000,000
Italy
59,000,000
+84%
The growth difference is enormous. Former colonies like India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have experienced explosive demographic expansion. Meanwhile, European empires have grown modestly—or in some cases, like Germany and Japan, are even facing population decline today.
The Russian Empire’s modern offshoots, though still sizable, haven’t kept pace with the population surges seen elsewhere. In contrast, the Qing Empire’s successor—China—remains a population heavyweight, even as growth slows.
These numbers reveal how deeply demographic patterns and the trajectories of societies are shaped by historical processes.
