British Virgin Islands

Constituent / territory of United Kingdom.

North AmericaCapital city: Road TownCapital metro: Road Town
2026 population
39K
Rank #226 globally
Area
151 km² (58 sq mi)
Metros tracked
1
59% of population in metros
Composite score
1.9
Rank #175 globally

population: UN projection (1 Jul 2024) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 1 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography1 metro

British Virgin Islands metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
1 polygons

Hover for rank, click to open the metro page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 1 tracked metro
1 metros
#901Road Town★ Capital▲ Largest
1.9
🗂️ Islands

6 entries listed under British Virgin Islands. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

6 total
📋 At a glance
Official language
English
Legislature
House of Assembly of the British Virgin Islands
Time zone
UTC−04:00
Driving side
Left
Calling code
+1284
Internet TLD
.vg
ISO 3166
VG
National anthem
God Save the King

Facts via Wikidata.

💹 Economy and developmentHigh income
Life expectancy
77.4 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
37.5 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
57%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
0.7%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
260/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
62.1%
World Bank · 2024
Internet users
78%
World Bank · 2017
CO₂ per capita
4.9 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
0%
Ember · 2023

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.

📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#169 · 0.0%
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
British Virgin Islands · share of world power, 1991–2026

The powerline 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
39k
#217 in the world
Since 1800
5.82×
from 7k
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.00%
0.00% in 1800
10k20k30k40k18001850190019502000
British Virgin Islands · people, 1800–2023 · dashed to 2026 is projected

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 British Virgin Islands: 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
2039
41k on the UN median
2050
40k
95% band 25k to 67k
2100
28k
95% band 8k to 96k
2100 against 2025
0.70×
median falling from 2040
Deaths outnumber births
from 2034
on the UN medium path; migration decides the rest
25k51k76k101k1950197520002025205020752100

Tap or drag across the chart to read any year: the estimate to 2023, then the UN median, its bands and the scenarios.

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
253 born · 141 died · -92 net migration
TFR 5.05 · life expectancy 53.3 · median age 17.7
1960
264 born · 84 died · -59 net migration
TFR 4.81 · life expectancy 62.7 · median age 16.6
1970
341 born · 73 died · -101 net migration
TFR 3.74 · life expectancy 66.4 · median age 19.7
1980
283 born · 77 died · +58 net migration
TFR 2.92 · life expectancy 69.6 · median age 22.3
1990
272 born · 86 died · +351 net migration
TFR 1.78 · life expectancy 72.4 · median age 25.9
2000
294 born · 92 died · +313 net migration
TFR 1.84 · life expectancy 74.8 · median age 29.7
2010
275 born · 140 died · -125 net migration
TFR 1.18 · life expectancy 76.3 · median age 32.7
2020
304 born · 215 died · +888 net migration
TFR 0.97 · life expectancy 76.9 · median age 36.3
Show all 16 decades
2030
314 born · 282 died · +110 net migration
TFR 1.10 · life expectancy 78.4 · median age 41.3
2040
304 born · 380 died · +63 net migration
TFR 1.17 · life expectancy 80.1 · median age 46.0
2050
264 born · 482 died · +36 net migration
TFR 1.22 · life expectancy 81.6 · median age 49.2
2060
248 born · 567 died · +41 net migration
TFR 1.27 · life expectancy 83.1 · median age 51.4
2070
240 born · 600 died · +67 net migration
TFR 1.31 · life expectancy 84.4 · median age 52.6
2080
225 born · 552 died · +60 net migration
TFR 1.35 · life expectancy 85.6 · median age 51.7
2090
210 born · 479 died · +87 net migration
TFR 1.38 · life expectancy 86.8 · median age 51.3
2100
202 born · 434 died · +21 net migration
TFR 1.40 · life expectancy 87.9 · median age 51.3

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.

🏆 National Teams

British Virgin Islands on the international stage. Click a card for the full record.