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Most Populous Modern-Day Countries by Century

Name the modern-day countries whose current territory had the highest population in each listed century.
Based on a variety of sources including this map, Wikipedia, and popstat.info
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: June 3, 2019
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First submittedJune 3, 2019
Times taken65,726
Average score89.5%
Rating4.98
4:00
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0
 / 19 guessed
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2000
1,242 m
China
1,040 m
India
281 m
United States
206 m
Indonesia
170 m
Brazil
147 m
Russia
140 m
Pakistan
130 m
Bangladesh
127 m
Japan
110 m
Nigeria
 
 
1700
210 m
China
167 m
India
27 m
Japan
20 m
France
15 m
Germany
14 m
Bangladesh
13 m
Indonesia
12 m
Italy
12 m
Russia
11 m
Nigeria
 
 
1000
73 m
India
58 m
China
9 m
Bangladesh
7 m
Japan
7 m
Turkey
6 m
Mexico
5 m
France
5 m
Indonesia
4 m
multi-way tie
1900
400 m
China
250 m
India
87 m
Russia
76 m
United States
45 m
Germany
44 m
Japan
43 m
Indonesia
40 m
United Kingdom
39 m
France
32 m
Italy
 
 
1500
185 m
China
170 m
India
14 m
Japan
13 m
Bangladesh
13 m
France
12 m
Germany
11 m
Mexico
10 m
Indonesia
9 m
Italy
7 m
multi-way tie
 
 
500
59 m
China
45 m
India
8 m
Turkey
6 m
France
5 m
Italy
4 m
Bangladesh
4 m
Egypt
4 m
Iran
4 m
Japan
4 m
Spain
1800
295 m
China
255 m
India
29 m
Japan
27 m
France
21 m
Germany
21 m
Russia
18 m
Bangladesh
17 m
Italy
16 m
Indonesia
13 m
Nigeria
 
 
1300
116 m
China
95 m
India
16 m
France
12 m
Germany
12 m
Mexico
11 m
Bangladesh
10 m
Japan
9 m
Italy
8 m
Indonesia
7 m
Spain
 
 
1 AD
55 m
China
36 m
India
8 m
Turkey
7 m
Italy
4 m
Egypt
4 m
France
4 m
Germany
4 m
Iran
3 m
Japan
3 m
Spain
+12
Level 77
Jun 3, 2019
Had 1:56 time left, there might be room to take off a minute or so? From current scores it looks like a "guess as many countries as you can" quiz.
+4
Level 44
Jun 4, 2019
Yeah I got 2:20 mostly by guessing
+5
Level 82
Jun 4, 2019
I had close to 3 minutes left. Interesting but easy quiz.
+1
Level 67
Sep 19, 2020
Very easy. I had 2:13 left
+1
Level 47
Nov 15, 2020
Agreed, ended with 2:12 left
+4
Level 88
Jun 3, 2019
The average score is 19/19.
+39
Level ∞
Jun 4, 2019
Yeah, people on JetPunk are smart... in some ways ;)
+1
Level 51
Aug 12, 2019
Now 18
+1
Level 67
Aug 12, 2019
It says that 47.5% of people also scored 100%
+6
Level 87
Jun 3, 2019
Yeah, I'm kind of surprised at how easy everyone found this quiz.
+8
Level 65
Aug 12, 2019
The first 15 are easy. The current big and populated countries, and the ones you know that used to have empires. Only for the last couple you have to think a bit harder, because there are more contenders
+8
Level 57
Jan 8, 2021
Also, just start guessing historical empires, IE Iran, Egypt, Turkey
+12
Level 74
Jun 4, 2019
I think 19/19 really has more to do with how few answers there really are over the span of 2,000 years than the time allotted. We homo sapiens seem to cluster in the same areas, so the answers have not really changed that much except for the addition of New World countries like the United States and Brazil. I mean think about it: there are only 19 correct answers for a possible 171 slots. That's incredible.
+2
Level 65
Aug 12, 2019
It would be nice if in the answer stat is shown for each country, on which, or atleast on how many of the lists they have appeared. It is nice if the answers from a quiz paint a picture. And this one contains some interesting facts (it is just not coming to life as much as it could, some sort of graph would be ideal, but this is not the place for that :) )
+2
Level 65
Aug 12, 2019
For instance Japan, India, and China are the only three that managed to stay in all the top 10s. France is close, only missing out on the last one. (surpassed by Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria)

A rather crude (and perhaps incorrect) conclusion could be. Some of these countries aleady decided to make sure their offspring populated the lands early on. And other started to do that now. Plus Industries have changed, no more "one of the first and only" of a lot of things

+2
Level 67
Jun 4, 2019
Only missed Iran.
+1
Level 65
Jun 5, 2019
I completely forgot about the us and the uk hahaha! (And missed bangladesh and pakistan but thats not so weird)

I was thinking, man i still miss THREE in the

2000 one ! What could they be. And why am i missing more in the 2000 one than in any of the others...

+3
Level 65
Jun 5, 2019
From 500 too 2000 china and india gained around 1000 million people !! The only other two that stayed on the list are bangladesh and japan and they "only" gained around 100 million.

And the changes after 1900 are crazy! Up until then all the countries seem to grow at a reasonably steady pace. Graphs will have gone like __/

+1
Level 75
Jun 5, 2019
The wonders of modern medicine!
+1
Level 65
Aug 12, 2019
Maybe, but I only think that is a small portions. The strain on peoples life has decreased drastically. No more 18 hour work days busting your ass off, but 5 days 8 hours sitting on your ass basicly. They had to literally work for their food. People nowadays work so at home they can sit on their ass with all the conveniences around them, everything electronic and automatic. It is a wonder people still walk from the front door to their couch..

Sorry for being cynical. But well.. I dunno society is weird, I am weird, whatcha gonna do..

+1
Level 76
May 19, 2022
cringe
+3
Level 59
Jun 5, 2019
Poland? They were less affected than the rest of the world and the rest of Europe by the black death. They had a population of 14million by 1772
+3
Level 64
May 17, 2022
Could it be that Poland was considerably larger back then? I'm not familiar with Polish history but perhaps they had lands in modern day Germany/Eastern Europe, but the actual land area of modern day Poland didn't have the entirety of that large population.
+1
Level 59
Jul 11, 2022
Yeah, eastern lands weren't very densely populated but it was massive so they've added quite a lot. You can still see this today, there are 22M-23M people in Lithuania, Western Ukraine and Belarus while there is 38M in Poland despite being smaller by about 80,000km²
+3
Level 53
Jun 6, 2019
Got all of them on my first try! :O I'm impressed
+3
Level 65
Aug 12, 2019
I wonder how far back you have to go before Iraq starts to show up in the list
+5
Level 38
Aug 12, 2019
China's crazy. 842 million people in 100 years.

That's 8.4 million chinese babies born each year.

+3
Level 74
May 17, 2022
That's assuming nobody dies in those 100 years. I'm not a historian or demographer, but that doesn't strike me as a reasonable assumption. The number of babies had to be way higher unless there was also a huge influx of immigrants (there wasn't).
+3
Level 28
Aug 13, 2019
I missed Italy and Mexico =/
+2
Level 56
Mar 8, 2020
Somehow forgot Japan
+3
Level 49
Dec 26, 2020
Im surprised Iraq is nowhere on this list
+2
Level 57
Dec 28, 2020
Where's Poland? Poland population in 1700 is 11,5mln
+1
Level 65
May 2, 2022
You may have the numbers for the PLC. This focuses on the modern-day territory of Poland, how many people were in it.
+2
Level 78
Mar 3, 2021
Surprisingly not as difficult as I thought it would be. There are very few surprises, if any.
+4
Level 69
Apr 19, 2021
It's quite easy to understand why France was such a powerhouse in Europe until the XIXth century when you see just how populous its soil enabled it to be.

Don't get me wrong, it's still powerful, but it used to be almost unstoppable.

+1
Level 64
May 17, 2022
France is a land, and England a people. And America? She was always a dream.
+2
Level 44
Jul 9, 2021
missed iran, don't know why
+1
Level 43
Aug 11, 2021
I almost forgot Japan
+2
Level 82
Oct 23, 2021
2100 will be the first in a long time without Japan in the top 10.
+1
Level 74
May 17, 2022
I'm not well-versed in the colonial history of Britain in India, but seeing that the population of India dropped between 1800-1900 is a bit of a red flag. Complicated, I'm sure.
+1
Level 71
May 17, 2022
I'm not completely sure but it might have something to do with the famines. The most famous one is the Bengal famine in the 1940s, but there were quite a few in the 19th century as well. The 1857 rebellion also killed about 1 million people. I'm not sure these events alone were responsible for the population drop, but it's likely that they (and by extension British colonial policies) at least partially contributed to it.
+2
Level 67
May 17, 2022
India ruined China's sweep.
+2
Level 67
May 17, 2022
Although, I guess you could say China ruined India's, as well.
+1
Level 45
May 18, 2022
What happened in China between the years 500 and 1000 (to make the population decrease)?
+1
Level 53
Dec 2, 2022
i'm not 100% sure but i would guess it had something to do with the Huang Chao rebellion and the disconnected Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period; not a huge Chinese history buff though so i could be incorrect
+1
Level 20
Jan 8, 2023
I got some then I was like ooh I must of missed a bunch of countries, Me giving up and seeing the only country I missed was Italy me:(