The 25 Most Populated Countries Today and Yesterday

I have read an old book that featured the 25 most populated countries all over the world in 1985. Just out of curiosity, I googled the top 25 countries with the highest human population to date. And I discovered that there aren't much difference with regards to the ranking of these countries. There some countries, however, that have switched places, others have stayed at the same rank, while some are no longer seen among the top 25.

THE 25 MOST POPULATED COUNTRIES
COUNTRIES	POPULATION IN 1985	COUNTRIES	POPULATION IN 2016
1.         China	1,059,521,000	1.         China	1,373,541,278
2.         India	758,927,000	2.         India	1,266,883,598
3.         USSR	278,618,000	3.         United States	323,995,528
4.         United States	238,020,000	4.         Indonesia	258,316,051
5.         Indonesia	166,440,000	5.         Brazil	205,823,665
6.         Brazil	135,564,000	6.         Pakistan	201,995,540
7.         Japan	120,742,000	7.         Nigeria	186,053,386
8.         Bangladesh	101,147,000	8.         Bangladesh	156,186,882
9.         Pakistan	100,380,000	9.         Russia	142,355,415
10.       Nigeria	95,198,000	10.      Japan	126,702,133
11.      Mexico	78,996,000	11.      Mexico	123,166,749
12.      West Germany	61,700,000	12.      Philippines	102,624,209
13.      Italy	57,300,000	13.      Ethiopia	102,374,044
14.      UK	56,125,000	14.      Vietnam	95,261,021
15.      France	54,621,000	15.      Egypt	94,666,993
16.      Philippines	54,498,000	16.      Iran	82,801,633
17.      Thailand	51,411,000	17.      Congo, Dem. Rep.	81,331,050
18.      Turkey	49,298,000	18.      Germany	80,722,792
19.      Egypt	46,909,000	19.      Turkey	80,274,604
20.      Iran	44,632,000	20.      Thailand	68,200,824
21.      Ethiopia	43,557,000	21.      France	66,836,154
22.      Korea	41,258,000	22.      United Kingdom	64,430,428
23.      Spain	38,542,000	23.      Italy	62,007,540
24.      Poland	37,187,000	24.      Burma	56,890,418
25.      Burma	37,153,000	25.      South Africa	54,300,704

As we can see, China, India, Bangladesh and Mexico have maintained their ranking after 29 years. While these countries, their respective population growths has not doubled in contrast to the prediction of the writer of the article I read.

Nevertheless, the population explosion of these countries is still very significant to consider.

The only country that is no longer ranked among the top 25 is Spain, which goes down to the 28th.

Other countries we can see in the list on the first column have been dissolved, reunified or split. USSR, West Germany and Korea, are examples, respectively.