Yemen Population

Yemen still has high fertility and a very young population, but its demographics are overshadowed by war, displacement and one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Famine conditions and the collapse of basic services have driven up mortality and uprooted millions. The underlying growth rate stays high even as daily survival dominates the lives of most Yemenis.

Yemen is the world's 37th most populous country, home to about 42.4 million people in 2026. In Western Asia, where it lies, that future is driven by fertility, longevity and the movement of people across its borders. Population density stands at about 81 people for every square kilometre of land.

Growth continues for Yemen until around 2100, the year its population is set to crest at about 110 million. From there a slow fall takes it to roughly 110 million by century's end. The 100 million threshold is reached around 2081.

Fertility is high, around 4.50 births per woman, the engine of rapid, sustained growth.

Half of Yemen is currently younger than about 18, but by 2100 the median age is projected to reach around 37, even as life expectancy improves from about 69 years. For now it remains one of the world's youngest populations, with a large generation about to reach working age. That ageing slowly changes everything from the size of the workforce to the cost of care and pensions.

These figures follow the UN's medium variant, the most widely cited scenario. The low and high variants, driven mainly by differing fertility assumptions, fan out into a wide range by 2100, so treat each number as a central estimate rather than a precise forecast.