Yemen

AsiaCapital city: Sana'aCapital metro: AdenMost important metro: Sana'aPresident: Rashad al-AlimiPrime Minister: Salem Saleh bin Braik
2026 population
32.7M
Rank #48 globally
Area
528k km² (204k sq mi)
Metros tracked
8
24% of population in metros
Composite score
5.0
Rank #130 globally

population: Official estimate (1 Jul 2023) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 8 metros tracked

🏙️ 8 tracked metros
8 metros
🗂️ Governorates

22 entries listed under Yemen. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

22 total
📋 At a glance
Official language
Arabic
Government
Presidential system
Legislature
Parliament of Yemen
Demonym
Yemeni
Time zone
UTC+03:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+967
Internet TLD
.ye
ISO 3166
YE
Established
1990
Highest point
Jabal an Nabi Shu'ayb (3,666 m (12,028 ft))
National anthem
National anthem of Yemen

Facts via Wikidata.

📰 In the news2 stories
Every story in the latest digest →
💹 Economy and developmentLow income
Human Dev. Index
#182 / 191
0.470
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#129 / 193
$21.6B
World Bank · 2018
GDP per capita
#188 / 193
$634
World Bank · 2018
GDP/capita (PPP)
#173 / 190
$3.2k
World Bank · 2013
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#182 / 192
$740
World Bank · 2018
Life expectancy
#134 / 194
69.4 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
18.2 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#157 / 194
37%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
2.9%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#113 / 193
75/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#153 / 193
1.0%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#165 / 175
0.07
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#96 / 166
36.7
World Bank · 2014
Internet users
#184 / 193
17%
World Bank · 2019
Inflation
#153 / 185
8.1%
World Bank · 2014
CO₂ per capita
#18 / 192
0.2 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#144 / 186
11%
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 & Organisations2 full memberships

Political & Economic

Regional

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History25 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.

Other

Salem Saleh bin Braik✦ Current

2025Present

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1y 2m 0d

Ahmad Awad Bin Mubarak

20242025

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1y 2m 28d

Rashad al-Alimi✦ Current

2022Present

President

Tenure: 4y 2m 26d

Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed

20182024

Prime Minister

Tenure: 5y 3m 21d

Ahmed Obaid Bin Dagher

20162018

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2y 6m 12d

Khaled Bahah

20142016

President

Tenure: 1y 4m 27d

Khaled Bahah

20142016

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1y 4m 27d

Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi

20122014

President

Tenure: 2y 10m 6d

Mohammed Basindawa

20112014

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2y 9m 11d

Ali Muhammad Mujawar

20072011

Prime Minister

Tenure: 4y 7m 28d

Abdul Qadir Bajamal

20012007

Prime Minister

Tenure: 5y 11m 27d

Abd Al-Karim Al-Iryani

19982001

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2y 11m 2d
Show all 17 leaders

Faraj Said Bin Ghanem

19971998

Prime Minister

Tenure: 11m 15d

Abdul Aziz Abdul Ghani

19941997

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2y 7m 8d

Muhammad Said al-Attar

19941994

Prime Minister

Tenure: 4m 27d

Haidar Abu Bakr al-Attas

19901994

Prime Minister

Tenure: 3y 11m 17d

Ali Abdullah Saleh

19902011

President

Tenure: 21y 0d

Yemen Arab Republic

Ali Abdullah Saleh

19781990

President

Tenure: 11y 10m 4dNorth Yemen

Ahmad al-Ghashmi

19771978

President

Tenure: 8m 13dassassinated

Ibrahim al-Hamdi

19741977

President

Tenure: 3y 3m 28dassassinated

Abdul Rahman al-Iryani

19671974

President

Tenure: 6y 7m 8d

Abdullah as-Sallal

19621967

President

Tenure: 5y 1m 10d

Mutawakkilite Kingdom

👑 Muhammad al-Badr

19621962

Imam

Tenure: 7ddeposed in coup

👑 Ahmad bin Yahya

19481962

Imam

Tenure: 14y 6m 5ddied

👑 Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din

19181948

Imam

Tenure: 29y 3m 16dassassinated
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#124 · 0.0%
3%5%8%10%19502000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Yemen · share of world power, 1926–2026

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 19458 interstate wars · click to expand
Al-Qaeda and allies,AQAP,Ansar al-Sharia,Council of Scholars of Ahl al-Sunna wal-Jama'ah,Hadhrami Domestic council,Dhi Na'im tribe,Al-Hamiqan tribe,Islamic State,Yemen Province
Combat deaths:
Combat deaths: 1,084+
Ogaden War1977–1978
Combat deaths: 39,836+
Combat deaths: 13,073–26,373
Idrisid Emirate of Asir
Combat deaths:

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

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
39.4m
#37 in the world
Since 1800
15×
from 2.6m
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.49%
0.26% in 1800
10.7m21.5m32.2m43.0m18001850190019502000
Yemen · 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 Yemen: 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
after 2100
still growing at 2100
2050
71.0m
95% band 55.5m to 87.2m
2100
110m
95% band 55.6m to 236m
2100 against 2025
2.63×
median still rising in 2100
62.1m124m186m248m1950197520002025205020752100

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
244k born · 177k died · -3k net migration
TFR 7.97 · life expectancy 28.9 · median age 18.2
1960
310k born · 187k died · -3k net migration
TFR 7.99 · life expectancy 33.5 · median age 18.6
1970
396k born · 189k died · -21k net migration
TFR 8.23 · life expectancy 40.6 · median age 17.3
1980
524k born · 168k died · -27k net migration
TFR 8.71 · life expectancy 50.6 · median age 14.8
1990
707k born · 157k died · -16k net migration
TFR 8.61 · life expectancy 58.5 · median age 13.5
2000
802k born · 155k died · -48k net migration
TFR 6.32 · life expectancy 62.8 · median age 14.4
2010
953k born · 149k died · +20k net migration
TFR 4.81 · life expectancy 67.2 · median age 16.6
2020
1.3m born · 211k died · -98k net migration
TFR 4.60 · life expectancy 66.4 · median age 18.1
Show all 16 decades
2030
1.4m born · 213k died · -31k net migration
TFR 3.97 · life expectancy 70.3 · median age 19.0
2040
1.5m born · 272k died · -50k net migration
TFR 3.27 · life expectancy 71.5 · median age 21.1
2050
1.6m born · 363k died · -54k net migration
TFR 2.81 · life expectancy 72.7 · median age 24.1
2060
1.6m born · 479k died · -62k net migration
TFR 2.50 · life expectancy 73.9 · median age 26.8
2070
1.6m born · 608k died · -72k net migration
TFR 2.28 · life expectancy 75.1 · median age 29.3
2080
1.5m born · 731k died · -75k net migration
TFR 2.11 · life expectancy 76.4 · median age 32.0
2090
1.5m born · 858k died · -74k net migration
TFR 1.99 · life expectancy 77.6 · median age 34.7
2100
1.4m born · 1.0m died · -77k net migration
TFR 1.91 · life expectancy 78.9 · median age 37.2

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

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