Belize

North AmericaCapital city: BelmopanCapital metro: BelmopanMost important metro: Belize CityPrime Minister: Johnny Briceño
2026 population
418K
Rank #182 globally
Area
23k km² (9k sq mi)
Metros tracked
2
57% of population in metros
Composite score
0.3
Rank #217 globally

population: Official estimate (1 Jul 2025) · indicators as of 5 Sep 2026 · 2 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography2 metros

Belize metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
2 polygons

Select a metro for its rank and a link to its page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 2 tracked metros
2 metros
#2407Belize City▲ Largest
Belize · 131K · Local Metro
0.3
#3581Belmopan★ Capital
Cayo · 105K · Local Metro
0.0
🗂️ Districts

6 entries listed under Belize. Select any to see its metros and footprint.

6 total
📋 At a glance
Official language
English
Government
Parliamentary monarchy
Legislature
National Assembly
Demonym
Belizean
Time zone
UTC−06:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+501
Internet TLD
.bz
ISO 3166
BZ
Established
1981
Highest point
Doyle's Delight (1,124 m (3,688 ft))
National anthem
Land of the Free

Facts via Wikidata.

🗣️ Languages of Belize

English first; 3 languages share the country; 1 official.

LanguageShareStatus
English77%Official
Spanish55%None
Belize Kriol English50%None
Q'eqchi'6.5%None
Mopan4%None
Garifuna1.9%None

Shares count first and second language, so they overlap and can add past 100%.

English reach
77%
Tier 3 country
Effective languages
1.0
Official-language gap
23%
English is spoken by 77%

Belize on the languages board · Language power

💹 Economy and developmentUpper middle income
Human Dev. Index
#115 / 191
0.721
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#167 / 193
$3.3B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#95 / 193
$7.9k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#112 / 190
$15.0k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#95 / 192
$7.5k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#100 / 194
73.7 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
25.9 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#148 / 194
42%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
1.4%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#171 / 193
18/km² (47/mi²)
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#36 / 193
16.5%
World Bank · 2024
Gini index
#122 / 166
39.9
World Bank · 2018
Internet users
#99 / 193
80%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#39 / 185
1.1%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#78 / 192
1.9 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#25 / 186
87%
Ember · 2024

Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.

Alliances & Organisations5 full memberships

Political & Economic

Subregional

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History7 leaders · click to expand
Johnny Briceño✦ Current
Prime Minister · 5y 7m 21d
2020–Present
Dean Barrow
Prime Minister · 12y 9m 4d
2008–2020
Said Musa
Prime Minister · 9y 5m 11d
1998–2008
Manuel Esquivel
Prime Minister · 5y 1m 25d
1993–1998
George Cadle Price
Premier · 3y 7m 26d
1989–1993
George Cadle Price
Prime Minister · 0d
1989–1989
Manuel Esquivel
Prime Minister · 4y 10m 21d
1984–1989
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#207 · 0.0%
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)

The power line is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
411k
#177 in the world
Since 1800
16×
from 26k
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.01%
0.00% in 1800
107k214k321k429k18001850190019502000

Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Note that people and share of world can move in opposite directions. A country can grow steadily and still become a smaller part of humanity, which is what happened to almost every rich country after 1960.

👥 To 2100

The UN’s probabilistic projection for Belize: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.

Peak on the median
2063
528k on the UN median
2050
517k
95% band 369k to 722k
2100
447k
95% band 104k to 1.8m
2100 against 2025
1.06×
median falling from 2064
Deaths outnumber births
from 2064
on the UN medium path; migration decides the rest
476k953k1.4m1.9m1950197520002025205020752100
estimateUN median80% and 95% bandshigh and low fertilityzero migration

What drives it

Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.

1950
4k born · 1k died · -578 net migration
TFR 6.69 · life expectancy 49.2 · median age 19.6
1960
4k born · 1k died · -577 net migration
TFR 6.50 · life expectancy 57.4 · median age 16.8
1970
5k born · 1k died · -1k net migration
TFR 6.30 · life expectancy 63.0 · median age 14.3
1980
6k born · 1k died · -1k net migration
TFR 5.85 · life expectancy 66.9 · median age 16.1
1990
7k born · 1k died · -2k net migration
TFR 4.80 · life expectancy 69.6 · median age 16.5
2000
7k born · 1k died · +2k net migration
TFR 3.63 · life expectancy 68.9 · median age 18.6
2010
7k born · 2k died · +2k net migration
TFR 2.55 · life expectancy 70.9 · median age 20.9
2020
7k born · 2k died · +64 net migration
TFR 2.04 · life expectancy 71.6 · median age 24.7

Every country to 2100 →

Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.

💰 Billionaires1 · $3.9B combined · click to expand
#1104Kenneth Dart(inherited)
Finance & Investments · Investments
$3.9B

Source: Forbes real-time billionaires (via the rtb-api project). Net worth as of the latest monthly snapshot.

🏆 National Teams

Belize on the international stage. Select a card for the full record.