What is the difference in the global population hockey stick between Rwanda and Zimbabwe?

2.39 million people, with Zimbabwe ahead.

How many years of comparable data are there for Rwanda and Zimbabwe?

241 years are reported by both, from 1000 to 2023.

Where does this data come from?

HYDE (2023); Gapminder (2022); UN WPP (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as The global population hockey stick. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

Rwanda vs Zimbabwe: The global population hockey stick

Rwanda

13.95 million people

in 2023

Zimbabwe

16.34 million people

in 2023

Rwanda rank

78th

Zimbabwe rank

75th

The global population hockey stick over time

Rwanda
Zimbabwe

How they compare

Zimbabwe currently reports 16.34 million people against 13.95 million people in Rwanda, a difference of 2.39 million people.

That makes Zimbabwe's figure about 1.2 times Rwanda's.

The two have swapped places 3 times across 241 shared years of data; in 1000 it was Rwanda ahead.

Rwanda ranks 78th and Zimbabwe ranks 75th of 239 countries.

Across the 40 decades both report, Rwanda averaged higher in 25 and Zimbabwe in 15.

Head to head by decade

Decade	Rwanda	Zimbabwe	Difference	Ahead
1000s	288,000 people	170,000 people	118,000 people	Rwanda
1100s	350,400 people	170,000 people	180,400 people	Rwanda
1200s	412,800 people	170,000 people	242,800 people	Rwanda
1300s	475,200 people	170,000 people	305,200 people	Rwanda
1400s	537,600 people	170,000 people	367,600 people	Rwanda
1500s	600,000 people	340,000 people	260,000 people	Rwanda
1600s	660,000 people	368,900 people	291,100 people	Rwanda
1700s	720,000 people	397,800 people	322,200 people	Rwanda
1710s	736,737 people	404,601 people	332,136 people	Rwanda
1720s	745,120 people	412,333 people	332,787 people	Rwanda
1730s	753,971 people	420,561 people	333,410 people	Rwanda
1740s	763,339 people	429,343 people	333,996 people	Rwanda
1750s	773,281 people	438,745 people	334,536 people	Rwanda
1760s	783,864 people	448,844 people	335,020 people	Rwanda
1770s	795,163 people	459,732 people	335,431 people	Rwanda
1780s	807,272 people	471,520 people	335,752 people	Rwanda
1790s	820,301 people	484,341 people	335,960 people	Rwanda
1800s	928,368 people	1.09 million people	157,442 people	Zimbabwe
1810s	928,674 people	1.09 million people	156,785 people	Zimbabwe
1820s	1.00 million people	1.01 million people	7,234 people	Zimbabwe
1830s	1.18 million people	858,333 people	319,574 people	Rwanda
1840s	1.39 million people	729,529 people	656,776 people	Rwanda
1850s	1.52 million people	698,676 people	820,200 people	Rwanda
1860s	1.53 million people	771,918 people	761,599 people	Rwanda
1870s	1.55 million people	854,563 people	691,959 people	Rwanda
1880s	1.58 million people	946,054 people	634,697 people	Rwanda
1890s	1.57 million people	1.05 million people	521,436 people	Rwanda
1900s	1.46 million people	1.19 million people	268,788 people	Rwanda
1910s	1.37 million people	1.40 million people	27,474 people	Zimbabwe
1920s	1.44 million people	1.68 million people	238,504 people	Zimbabwe
1930s	1.66 million people	2.06 million people	396,336 people	Zimbabwe
1940s	1.94 million people	2.50 million people	556,456 people	Zimbabwe
1950s	2.53 million people	3.22 million people	691,299 people	Zimbabwe
1960s	3.41 million people	4.41 million people	997,969 people	Zimbabwe
1970s	4.56 million people	5.98 million people	1.42 million people	Zimbabwe
1980s	6.24 million people	8.52 million people	2.29 million people	Zimbabwe
1990s	7.37 million people	10.99 million people	3.61 million people	Zimbabwe
2000s	9.01 million people	12.46 million people	3.45 million people	Zimbabwe
2010s	11.52 million people	14.31 million people	2.79 million people	Zimbabwe
2020s	13.51 million people	15.93 million people	2.43 million people	Zimbabwe

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher the global population hockey stick, Rwanda or Zimbabwe?: Zimbabwe, at 16.34 million people against 13.95 million people in Rwanda as of 2023.
What is the difference in the global population hockey stick between Rwanda and Zimbabwe?: 2.39 million people, with Zimbabwe ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for Rwanda and Zimbabwe?: 241 years are reported by both, from 1000 to 2023.
How do Rwanda and Zimbabwe rank globally for the global population hockey stick?: Rwanda ranks 78th and Zimbabwe ranks 75th of 239 countries.
Where does this data come from?: HYDE (2023); Gapminder (2022); UN WPP (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as The global population hockey stick. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

Individual pages

Share, cite or embed this page

Cite this page

Rwanda vs Zimbabwe: The global population hockey stick. Statizoid, drawing on HYDE (2023); Gapminder (2022); UN WPP (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data. Retrieved 02 September 2026, from https://population.statizoid.com/compare/world-population-over-the-last-12000-years-and-un-projection-until-2100/rwanda/zimbabwe/

Embed or link this data

Paste this into a page to link back to these figures. The data itself is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data); please keep the attribution.

<a href="https://population.statizoid.com/compare/world-population-over-the-last-12000-years-and-un-projection-until-2100/rwanda/zimbabwe/">Rwanda vs Zimbabwe: The global population hockey stick</a> — Statizoid

About this data

Indicator: The global population hockey stick
Unit: people
Source: HYDE (2023); Gapminder (2022); UN WPP (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage: 239 places, 51,002 data points, 1000–2023
Last refreshed: 28 August 2026

Population by country, available from 10,000 BCE to 2023, based on data and estimates from different sources.