Palau

OceaniaCapital city: KororCapital metro: NgerulmudMost important metro: Koror CityPresident: Surangel Whipps Jr.
2026 population
17K
Rank #232 globally
Area
459 km² (177 sq mi)
Metros tracked
2
100% of population in metros
Composite score
0.3
Rank #232 globally

population: 2021 census (1 Jul 2021) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 2 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography2 metros

Palau metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
2 polygons

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

🏙️ 2 tracked metros
2 metros
🗂️ States

16 entries listed under Palau. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

16 total
📋 At a glance
Official languages
English, Japanese, Palauan
Legislature
Palau National Congress
Demonym
Palauan
Time zone
UTC+09:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+680
Internet TLD
.pw
ISO 3166
PW
Established
1994
Highest point
Mount Ngerchelchuus (242 m (794 ft))
National anthem
Belau rekid

Facts via Wikidata.

💹 Economy and developmentHigh income
Human Dev. Index
#84 / 191
0.786
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#191 / 193
$345M
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#59 / 193
$19.5k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#82 / 190
$23.1k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#54 / 192
$19.9k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#135 / 194
69.4 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
37.8 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#46 / 194
79%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
-0.2%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#143 / 193
39/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#17 / 193
29.5%
World Bank · 2024
Internet users
#84 / 193
84%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#7 / 185
-0.4%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#179 / 192
12.8 t
Global Carbon Budget · 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 & Organisations2 full memberships

Political & Economic

Subregional

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History3 leaders · click to expand

marks a leader associated with atrocities or defiance of law, systemic subversion of democratic institutions, or a criminal conviction. Convictions arising from political persecution, and annulled convictions, are excluded. denotes a monarch. These are editorial designations, applied per entry rather than derived automatically.

Surangel Whipps Jr.✦ Current

2021Present

President

Tenure: 5y 5m 12d

Thomas Remengesau Jr.

20132021

President

Tenure: 8y 0d

Thomas Remengesau Jr.

20012009

President

Tenure: 8y 14d
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#221 · 0.0%
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Palau · 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
18k
#224 in the world
Since 1800
4.58×
from 4k
Past its peak
−10.5%
peaked at 20k in 2004
Share of world
0.00%
0.00% in 1800
5k10k15k20k18001850190019502000
Palau · 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. Palau is past its peak, which is less unusual than it sounds: the two lines here can point in opposite directions, and for most of Europe and East Asia they now both point down.

👥 To 2100

The UN’s probabilistic projection for Palau: 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
2004
20k; already passed
2050
16k
95% band 8k to 27k
2100
11k
95% band 3k to 49k
2100 against 2025
0.63×
median falling from 2024
Deaths outnumber births
since 2021
on the UN medium path; migration decides the rest
13k26k38k51k1950197520002025205020752100

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
346 born · 154 died · -25 net migration
TFR 7.15 · life expectancy 52.7 · median age 17.6
1960
432 born · 136 died · -70 net migration
TFR 7.19 · life expectancy 54.9 · median age 15.7
1970
421 born · 135 died · +54 net migration
TFR 6.39 · life expectancy 57.7 · median age 15.3
1980
280 born · 116 died · -179 net migration
TFR 3.35 · life expectancy 61.9 · median age 17.7
1990
336 born · 155 died · +156 net migration
TFR 2.88 · life expectancy 62.8 · median age 24.6
2000
276 born · 190 died · +120 net migration
TFR 1.82 · life expectancy 64.5 · median age 29.8
2010
251 born · 170 died · -392 net migration
TFR 1.94 · life expectancy 68.3 · median age 33.3
2020
207 born · 198 died · 0 net migration
TFR 1.97 · life expectancy 68.7 · median age 36.8
Show all 16 decades
2030
181 born · 231 died · -19 net migration
TFR 1.79 · life expectancy 70.0 · median age 40.1
2040
178 born · 265 died · +1 net migration
TFR 1.74 · life expectancy 71.1 · median age 41.9
2050
157 born · 269 died · -7 net migration
TFR 1.72 · life expectancy 72.3 · median age 41.2
2060
142 born · 248 died · -6 net migration
TFR 1.70 · life expectancy 73.5 · median age 42.5
2070
135 born · 219 died · -3 net migration
TFR 1.69 · life expectancy 74.8 · median age 42.5
2080
123 born · 193 died · -3 net migration
TFR 1.69 · life expectancy 76.2 · median age 42.8
2090
112 born · 180 died · -3 net migration
TFR 1.69 · life expectancy 77.5 · median age 43.9
2100
107 born · 172 died · 0 net migration
TFR 1.69 · life expectancy 78.7 · median age 44.4

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

Palau on the international stage. Click a card for the full record.