Guatemala

North AmericaCapital city: Guatemala CityCapital metro: Guatemala CityPresident: Bernardo Arévalo de León
2026 population
18.3M
Rank #71 globally
Area
109k km² (42k sq mi)
Metros tracked
8
39% of population in metros
Composite score
5.5
Rank #125 globally

population: Natl annual projection (1 Jul 2026) · indicators as of 5 Sep 2026 · 8 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography8 metros

Guatemala metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
8 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.

🏙️ 8 tracked metros
8 metros
#579Guatemala City★ Capital▲ Largest
Guatemala (San Miguel Petapa) · Sacatepéquez · 4.0M · Emerging Metro
4.0
#1447Flores
Petén · 45K · Local Metro
0.9
Quetzaltenango · 923K · Local Metro
0.3
Chimaltenango · 759K · Local Metro
0.3
#2957Cobán
Alta Verapaz (San Agustín Lanquín) · 557K · Local Metro
0.2
#2986Sololá
Sololá · 481K · Local Metro
0.2
Chiquimula · 453K · Local Metro
0.2
Petén · 7K · Local Metro
0.0
🗂️ Departments

22 entries listed under Guatemala. Select any to see its metros and footprint.

22 total
📋 At a glance
Official language
Spanish
Government
Representative democracy
Legislature
Congress of the Republic of Guatemala
Demonym
Guatemalan
Time zone
UTC−06:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+502
Internet TLD
.gt
ISO 3166
GT
Established
1821
Highest point
Volcán Tajumulco (4,203 m (13,789 ft))
National anthem
National Anthem of Guatemala

Facts via Wikidata.

🗣️ Languages of Guatemala

Spanish first; one language carries the country; 1 official.

LanguageShareStatus
Spanish88%Official
Kaqchikel8.8%Regional
Q'eqchi'8.8%None
K'iche'8.6%Regional
Mam4.6%None
English3.1%None

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

English reach
3%
Tier 3 country
Effective languages
1.2
Official-language gap
12%
Spanish is spoken by 88%

Guatemala on the languages board · Language power

💹 Economy and developmentUpper middle income
Human Dev. Index
#135 / 191
0.662
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#66 / 193
$123.3B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#104 / 193
$6.6k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#111 / 190
$15.2k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#102 / 192
$6.4k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#107 / 194
72.7 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
22.6 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#117 / 194
56%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
1.5%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#54 / 193
169/km² (438/mi²)
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#175 / 193
0.5%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#68 / 175
0.69
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#150 / 166
45.2
World Bank · 2023
Internet users
#135 / 193
60%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#47 / 185
1.5%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#56 / 192
1.1 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#47 / 186
68%
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 & Organisations3 full memberships

Political & Economic

Regional

Subregional

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History21 leaders · click to expand

is an editorial flag: associated with atrocities against civilians, systemic subversion of the constitutional order, or a criminal conviction (political persecutions and annulled convictions excluded). It is a curated list, not a measurement, so a name without one has not been cleared of anything. Hover a badge for the reason on file.

Other

Bernardo Arévalo de León✦ Current
President · 2y 5m 18d
2024–Present
Alejandro Giammattei
President · 4y 1d
2020–2024
Jimmy Morales
President · 4y 0d
2016–2020
Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre
President · 4m 11d
2015–2016
Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre
Prime Minister · 4m 11d
2015–2016
Otto Pérez Molina
President · 3y 7m 20d
2012–2015
Otto Pérez Molina
Prime Minister · 3y 7m 20d
2012–2015
Álvaro Colom
President · 4y 0d
2008–2012
Óscar Berger
President · 4y 0d
2004–2008
Óscar Berger
Prime Minister · 4y 0d
2004–2008
Alfonso Portillo
President · 4y 0d
2000–2004
Alfonso Portillo
Prime Minister · 4y 0d
2000–2004

Republic of Guatemala

Carlos Castillo Armas
President · backbone · 42y 13d
1954–1996
Jacobo Árbenz
President · backbone · 3y 0d
1951–1954
Juan José Arévalo
President · backbone · 6y 0d
1945–1951
Jorge Ubico
President · backbone · 14y 0d
1931–1945
Manuel Estrada Cabrera
President · backbone · 33y 0d
1898–1931
Justo Rufino Barrios
President · backbone · 25y 0d
1873–1898
Rafael Carrera
President · backbone · 29y 0d
1844–1873
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#119 · 0.0%
3%5%8%10%190019502000
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.

⚔️ Wars and conflicts3 interstate wars · click to expand
Combat deaths: 25,128+
Combat deaths: 1,000+
Filibuster War1856–1857
William Walker's filibusters,Nicaraguan Democráticos
Combat deaths: 7,700+

Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.” Figures marked “COW battle deaths” are Correlates of War battle-death counts, which run lower than total deaths.

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
18.1m
#69 in the world
Since 1800
39×
from 463k
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.22%
0.05% in 1800
4.7m9.5m14.2m19.0m18001850190019502000

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 Guatemala: 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
2077
27.2m on the UN median
2050
24.7m
95% band 21.6m to 28.3m
2100
25.9m
95% band 14.8m to 44.0m
2100 against 2025
1.39×
median falling from 2078
Deaths outnumber births
from 2079
on the UN medium path; migration decides the rest
11.5m23.1m34.6m46.2m1950197520002025205020752100
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
157k born · 80k died · +989 net migration
TFR 6.80 · life expectancy 37.8 · median age 16.8
1960
197k born · 77k died · -186 net migration
TFR 7.00 · life expectancy 45.8 · median age 15.6
1970
242k born · 86k died · -15k net migration
TFR 6.60 · life expectancy 48.5 · median age 15.7
1980
301k born · 82k died · -43k net migration
TFR 6.17 · life expectancy 55.3 · median age 16.0
1990
359k born · 79k died · -28k net migration
TFR 5.48 · life expectancy 61.8 · median age 16.0
2000
406k born · 73k died · -65k net migration
TFR 4.58 · life expectancy 67.1 · median age 16.6
2010
403k born · 79k died · -36k net migration
TFR 3.38 · life expectancy 69.9 · median age 18.6
2020
383k born · 101k died · -24k net migration
TFR 2.47 · life expectancy 70.0 · median age 21.6

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

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

National Teams Champions

Every major championship won by Guatemala's national teams, newest first. 1 in total.

1967· 1967-03-19