Countries with the Oldest Populations (Median Age, 2024)

Monaco leads the world with a median age of 56.9, followed by Japan at 49.9. European and East Asian nations dominate the top 20 oldest populations, with Netherlands rounding out the list at 42.2 years.

Data

#	Country	Median Age (Years)
1	Monaco	56.9
2	Japan	49.9
3	Andorra	48.8
4	Italy	48.4
5	Germany	46.8
6	Spain	46.8
7	Greece	46.5
8	Portugal	46.4
9	South Korea	45.5
10	Bulgaria	45.1
11	Croatia	45.1
12	Austria	44.9
13	Hungary	44.8
14	Czech Republic	44.2
15	Switzerland	44.2
16	Serbia	43.9
17	Poland	42.9
18	Canada	42.6
19	France	42.6
20	Netherlands	42.2

Note: The World's Oldest Populations by Median Age

What the data shows

Median age is the age that splits a population into two equal halves: half of all residents are younger than that figure and half are older. It is one of the best single indicators of how old a society is, because it is not distorted by a handful of very old individuals the way an average age can be.

Monaco leads the world with a median age of 56.9 years, the only country above 55.
Japan is second at 49.9 years, the oldest major economy on Earth.
Andorra (48.8), Italy (48.4), and Germany and Spain (both 46.8) complete the upper tier.
Greece (46.5), Portugal (46.4), and South Korea (45.5) round out the top nine.
Canada and France both sit at 42.6, while the Netherlands closes the top 20 at 42.2.

Why these countries are old

Most of the list shares two drivers: very low birth rates and long life expectancy. European nations have undergone decades of demographic transition, where families became smaller and people live longer, pushing the midpoint of the age distribution steadily upward.

Japan and South Korea have some of the lowest fertility rates on the planet, often well below 1.3 children per woman.
Italy, Greece, and Portugal combine low fertility with among the highest life expectancies in Europe.
Monaco is an extreme case: a tiny city-state with a wealthy, older resident base and relatively few children.
Eastern European entries such as Bulgaria, Croatia, and Serbia also face emigration, which skews their populations older as younger workers leave.

The global picture

Population ageing is a worldwide trend. The United Nations projects that the share of people aged 65 and over will keep climbing for decades, and nearly every rich country is already feeling the effects on pensions, healthcare, and the labour force.

Africa, by contrast, has the youngest populations, with many countries below 20 years of median age.
A young population can be a demographic dividend, but an ageing one raises the ratio of retirees to workers.
Societies with median ages in the mid-40s face rising costs in elder care and pension systems.

Fun Facts

Monaco's median age of 56.9 is roughly double that of Niger, one of the world's youngest countries, where the median age is around 15.
Japan was the first major Asian economy to become a "super-aged" society, with over 20% of citizens aged 65 or older.
South Korea's fertility rate has been the lowest in the world in recent years, which keeps pushing its median age upward faster than almost anywhere else.
Europe has 19 of the top 20 countries on this list; Canada is the only non-European entry.
Germany and Spain are tied at 46.8 years despite very different economies and migration histories.
Median ages in the 40s were almost unheard of a century ago; the global median age was around 24 in 1950.
An ageing population generally means lower birth rates followed by longer lives, a combination demographers call the demographic transition.