Venezuela

South AmericaCapital city: CaracasCapital metro: CaracasActing President: Delcy Rodriguez
2026 population
28.5M
Rank #54 globally
Area
916k km² (354k sq mi)
Metros tracked
18
65% of population in metros
Composite score
22.9
Rank #64 globally

population: UN projection (1 Jul 2025) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 18 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography18 metros

Venezuela metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
18 polygons

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

🏙️ 18 tracked metros
18 metros
🗂️ Administrative subdivisions

25 entries listed under Venezuela across 3 types. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

25 total

Federal Districts (1)

Federal Territories (1)

📋 At a glance
Official languages
Spanish, Venezuelan Sign Language
Government
Federal republic
Legislature
National Assembly
Demonym
Venezuelan
Time zone
UTC−04:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+58
Internet TLD
.ve
ISO 3166
VE
Established
1811
Highest point
Pico Bolívar (4,978 m (16,332 ft))
National anthem
gloria al bravo pueblo

Facts via Wikidata.

📰 In the news3 stories
Every story in the latest digest →
💹 Economy and developmentLower middle income
Human Dev. Index
#120 / 191
0.709
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#77 / 193
$99.7B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#135 / 193
$3.5k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#90 / 190
$21.3k
World Bank · 2011
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#130 / 192
$3.9k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#108 / 194
72.7 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
29.0 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#19 / 194
89%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
0.4%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#147 / 193
32/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#97 / 193
4.4%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#174 / 175
0.01
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#147 / 166
44.7
World Bank · 2006
Internet users
#107 / 193
77%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#185 / 185
254.9%
World Bank · 2016
CO₂ per capita
#125 / 192
4.1 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#21 / 186
91%
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

Regional

Energy

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History21 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.

Post-Maduro transition

Delcy Rodriguez✦ Current

2026Present

Acting President

Tenure: 2026-present (acting)PSUV

Bolivarian Revolution (Maduro)

⚠️ Nicolas Maduro

20132026

President

Tenure: 2013-2026 (captured by US forces)PSUV

Bolivarian Revolution

Hugo Chavez

19992013

President

Tenure: 1999-2013 (died in office)PSUV / MVR

Punto Fijo democracy (collapse)

Rafael Caldera

19941999

President

Tenure: 1994-1999National Convergence

Ramon Jose Velasquez

19931994

President (interim)

Tenure: 1993-1994Independent

⚠️ Carlos Andres Perez

19891993

President

Tenure: 1989-1993Democratic Action (AD)

Punto Fijo democracy

Jaime Lusinchi

19841989

President

Tenure: 1984-1989Democratic Action (AD)

Luis Herrera Campins

19791984

President

Tenure: 1979-1984COPEI

⚠️ Carlos Andres Perez

19741979

President

Tenure: 1974-1979Democratic Action (AD)

Rafael Caldera

19691974

President

Tenure: 1969-1974COPEI

Raul Leoni

19641969

President

Tenure: 1964-1969Democratic Action (AD)

Romulo Betancourt

19591964

President

Tenure: 1959-1964Democratic Action (AD)

Republic of Venezuela

⚠️ Marcos Pérez Jiménez

19521959

President

Tenure: 7y 1m 12dbackbone

Rómulo Gallegos

19481952

President

Tenure: 4y 0dbackbone

Isaías Medina Angarita

19411948

President

Tenure: 7y 0dbackbone

Eleazar López Contreras

19351941

President

Tenure: 6y 0dbackbone

⚠️ Juan Vicente Gómez

19081935

President

Tenure: 27y 0dbackbone

Cipriano Castro

18991908

President

Tenure: 9y 0dbackbone

Antonio Guzmán Blanco

18701899

President

Tenure: 29y 0dbackbone

José Tadeo Monagas

18471870

President

Tenure: 23y 0dbackbone

José Antonio Páez

18301847

President

Tenure: 17y 0dbackbone
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#60 · 0.2%
3%5%8%10%190019502000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Venezuela · share of world power, 1857–2026

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.

⚔️ Conflicts since 19451 interstate war · click to expand
Combat deaths:

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

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
28.3m
#53 in the world
Since 1800
28×
from 1.0m
Past its peak
−8.0%
peaked at 30.8m in 2016
Share of world
0.35%
0.10% in 1800
7.7m15.4m23.1m30.8m18001850190019502000
Venezuela · 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. Venezuela 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 Venezuela: 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
2057
31.2m on the UN median
2050
31.1m
95% band 22.0m to 42.3m
2100
28.3m
95% band 9.2m to 72.7m
2100 against 2025
0.99×
median falling from 2058
Deaths outnumber births
from 2070
on the UN medium path; migration decides the rest
19.1m38.1m57.2m76.3m1950197520002025205020752100

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
257k born · 79k died · +63k net migration
TFR 6.63 · life expectancy 51.1 · median age 16.1
1960
367k born · 82k died · +8k net migration
TFR 6.38 · life expectancy 58.4 · median age 15.5
1970
427k born · 76k died · +305 net migration
TFR 5.32 · life expectancy 64.8 · median age 15.9
1980
509k born · 83k died · +237 net migration
TFR 4.20 · life expectancy 68.2 · median age 17.8
1990
574k born · 96k died · -69 net migration
TFR 3.45 · life expectancy 71.0 · median age 19.7
2000
581k born · 121k died · -2k net migration
TFR 2.79 · life expectancy 72.4 · median age 22.0
2010
584k born · 159k died · -53k net migration
TFR 2.40 · life expectancy 73.1 · median age 24.8
2020
442k born · 205k died · -525k net migration
TFR 2.12 · life expectancy 72.4 · median age 28.2
Show all 16 decades
2030
453k born · 244k died · -69k net migration
TFR 1.99 · life expectancy 73.7 · median age 30.2
2040
431k born · 284k died · -43k net migration
TFR 1.90 · life expectancy 75.3 · median age 32.9
2050
377k born · 314k died · -29k net migration
TFR 1.83 · life expectancy 76.9 · median age 36.5
2060
360k born · 328k died · -41k net migration
TFR 1.79 · life expectancy 78.5 · median age 39.3
2070
331k born · 334k died · -38k net migration
TFR 1.76 · life expectancy 80.0 · median age 40.9
2080
301k born · 338k died · -28k net migration
TFR 1.74 · life expectancy 81.5 · median age 43.3
2090
282k born · 368k died · -24k net migration
TFR 1.73 · life expectancy 82.9 · median age 45.4
2100
260k born · 387k died · -19k net migration
TFR 1.72 · life expectancy 84.2 · median age 46.4

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.

💰 Billionaires1 · $11.2B combined · click to expand
Finance & InvestmentsBanking

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

🏆 National Teams

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

National Teams Champions

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