Nepal

AsiaCapital city: KathmanduCapital metro: KathmanduPrime Minister: Pushpa Kamal DahalPresident: Ram Chandra Poudel
2026 population
30.0M
Rank #51 globally
Area
147k km² (57k sq mi)
Metros tracked
9
32% of population in metros
Composite score
8.3
Rank #109 globally

population: National annual projection (1 Jul 2026) · indicators as of 5 Sep 2026 · 9 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography9 metros

Nepal metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
9 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.

🏙️ 9 tracked metros
9 metros
#616Kathmandu★ Capital▲ Largest
Bagmati · 3.0M · Emerging Metro
3.7
#1423Pokhara
Gandaki · 600K · Local Metro
0.9
Lumbini · 1.1M · Local Metro
0.9
Pradesh 1 [Province No. 1] · 1.1M · Local Metro
0.6
Sudurpashchim [Far West] · 911K · Local Metro
0.6
Madhesh [Province No. 2] · 873K · Local Metro
0.5
Bagmati · 722K · Local Metro
0.5
Karnali · 418K · Local Metro
0.4
#2929Birgunj
Madhesh [Province No. 2] · 649K · Local Metro
0.2
🗂️ Provinces

7 entries listed under Nepal. Select any to see its metros and footprint.

7 total
📋 At a glance
Official language
Nepali
Government
Federal republic
Legislature
Parliament of Nepal
Demonym
Nepali
Time zones
Nepal Standard Time, UTC+05:45
Driving side
Left
Calling code
+977
Internet TLD
.np
ISO 3166
NP
Established
2008
Highest point
Mount Everest (8,849 m (29,032 ft))
National anthem
Sayaun Thunga Phulka

Facts via Wikidata.

🗣️ Languages of Nepal

Nepali first; 2 languages share the country; 1 official.

LanguageShareStatus
Nepali44%Official
Maithili11%None
Bhojpuri6.8%None
Kathmandu Valley Newari3.3%None
Jumli3.2%None
English3%None

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

English reach
3%
Tier 3 country
Effective languages
4.6
Official-language gap
56%
Nepali is spoken by 44%

Nepal on the languages board · Language power

📰 In the news3 stories
Every story in the latest digest →
💹 Economy and developmentLower middle income
Human Dev. Index
#143 / 191
0.622
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#101 / 193
$45.5B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#162 / 193
$1.5k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#147 / 190
$6.2k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#160 / 192
$1.6k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#129 / 194
70.6 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
24.7 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#82 / 194
67%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
-0.1%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#50 / 193
207/km² (537/mi²)
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#140 / 193
1.6%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#75 / 175
0.66
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#33 / 166
30.0
World Bank · 2022
Internet users
#148 / 193
46%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#82 / 185
2.7%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#44 / 192
0.6 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
★ #4 / 186
100%
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

Subregional

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History22 leaders · click to expand

marks a monarch.

Other

Ram Chandra Poudel✦ Current
President · 3y 6m 2d
2023–Present
Pushpa Kamal Dahal✦ Current
Prime Minister · 3y 6m 7d
2022–Present
Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli
Prime Minister · 4y 10m 11d
2018–2022
Sher Bahadur Deuba
Prime Minister · 8m 8d
2017–2018
Pushpa Kamal Dahal
Prime Minister · 10m 4d
2016–2017
Bidya Devi Bhandari
President · 7y 2m 3d
2015–2023
Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli
Prime Minister · 9m 22d
2015–2016
Sushil Koirala
Prime Minister · 1y 7m 29d
2014–2015
Baburam Bhattarai
Prime Minister · 1y 6m 13d
2011–2013
Ram Baran Yadav
President · 7y 3m 6d
2008–2015

Kingdom of Nepal

Gyanendra
Monarch · 6y 11m 24d
2001–2008
Dipendra
Monarch · 3d
2001–2001
Birendra
Monarch · 29y 4m 1d
1972–2001
Mahendra
Monarch · 16y 10m 17d
1955–1972
Tribhuvan
Monarch · 43y 3m 3d
1911–1955
Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah
Monarch · 30y 6m 24d
1881–1911
Surendra Bikram Shah
Monarch · 34y 5d
1847–1881
Rajendra Bikram Shah
Monarch · 30y 5m 22d
1816–1847
Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah
Monarch · 17y 8m 12d
1799–1816
Rana Bahadur Shah
Monarch · 21y 3m 19d
1777–1799
Pratap Singh Shah
Monarch · 2y 10m 2d
1775–1777
Prithvi Narayan Shah
Monarch · 7y 14d
1768–1775
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#102 · 0.1%
3%5%8%10%19502000
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
British East India Company,Forces of the Chogyal
Combat deaths: —
Combat deaths: —
Combat deaths: —

Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.”

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
29.7m
#51 in the world
Since 1800
7.42×
from 4.0m
Peak
2022
29.7m
Share of world
0.37%
0.41% in 1800
7.4m14.9m22.3m29.7m18001850190019502000

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 Nepal: 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
2067
35.8m on the UN median
2050
34.6m
95% band 24.8m to 42.4m
2100
31.8m
95% band 10.9m to 63.3m
2100 against 2025
1.07×
median falling from 2068
Deaths outnumber births
from 2070
on the UN medium path; migration decides the rest
16.6m33.2m49.9m66.5m1950197520002025205020752100
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
391k born · 219k died · +4k net migration
TFR 6.06 · life expectancy 37.6 · median age 18.6
1960
454k born · 250k died · -13k net migration
TFR 6.07 · life expectancy 38.7 · median age 18.5
1970
533k born · 261k died · +2k net migration
TFR 5.87 · life expectancy 43.2 · median age 18.7
1980
629k born · 265k died · +5k net migration
TFR 5.60 · life expectancy 48.3 · median age 18.5
1990
744k born · 249k died · -640 net migration
TFR 5.21 · life expectancy 54.8 · median age 18.1
2000
760k born · 205k died · -147k net migration
TFR 3.98 · life expectancy 62.6 · median age 18.3
2010
625k born · 192k died · -270k net migration
TFR 2.54 · life expectancy 66.8 · median age 20.2
2020
584k born · 211k died · +162k net migration
TFR 2.05 · life expectancy 69.1 · median age 23.5

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 · $2.1B combined · click to expand
#2035Binod Chaudhary(inherited)
Diversified · Diversified
$2.1B

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

🏆 National Teams

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