Data & methodology
Pyramiddle is only as good as the numbers behind it, so here's exactly where they come from and how they're used. The short version: it's all real, official UN data — nothing is invented or stylised.
Source
Every population pyramid and demographic fact comes from the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division — World Population Prospects 2024. This is the most widely used global demographic dataset in the world, underpinning UN, World Bank and government planning.
- Reference year: the pyramids use the 2023 estimates (the latest "estimate" year in WPP 2024, as opposed to future projections).
- Coverage: 196 places — the 193 UN member states plus Taiwan, Palestine and Kosovo.
- Licence: UN data is published under CC BY 3.0 IGO.
How the pyramid is built
- Population is grouped into five-year age bands (0–4, 5–9, … 100+).
- Each band is split by sex. Male counts come straight from WPP's single-age male series (re-aggregated into five-year bands); the female count is derived as both-sexes minus male for each band.
- The chart you see mirrors males to the left and females to the right of a central axis — the classic population-pyramid layout.
The distance & direction hints
Hints are computed from each country's representative coordinates. Distance uses the haversine (great-circle) formula; the proximity percentage scales that distance against roughly half the Earth's circumference, and the arrow is the compass bearing from your guess to the answer. Country centroid coordinates come from a public-domain dataset, with manual fixes for newer or edge-case entities (e.g. South Sudan, Kosovo, Palestine).
The bonus round facts
After you solve a country, the bonus quiz draws on a mix of WPP 2024 series and the UN's live Data Portal:
- From WPP 2024 (computed locally): projected population in 2100, the year population peaks, the growth rate, the share under 15 and over 65, and the sex ratio. Long-range figures (e.g. 2100) use the UN's medium-variant projection.
- From the UN Data Portal API: total fertility rate, life expectancy at birth, median age, and net migration rate.
Limitations & honesty
- All demographic data involves estimation and revision; the UN updates these series periodically, and Pyramiddle will be refreshed when major new revisions land.
- Including Taiwan, Palestine and Kosovo is a practical choice to make the game complete and recognisable, not a political statement.
- Deriving female counts by subtraction can introduce tiny rounding differences versus the UN's own published female series; these are negligible at the scale of the chart.
Attribution
Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division (2024). World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Pyramiddle is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the United Nations.