Talk:List of countries by population in 1939

Note
This is a list of population for countries as they were in 1939. This is not a list of modern countries and the population of that territory in the year 1939. Also, this contains the largest political entities and its constituents. If you are looking for the population of a particular country and it is part of a greater polity (an empire for example), it will be listed as a constituent of that larger state.

If you make a change to the population figures, please cite your source. If your change matches the current source (correcting a mistake), please indicate that in the change log.

Nomenclature
For certain entities, the nomenclature is a bit difficult. The British Empire & Japanese Empire are easy terms that contain both the leading power (Britain and Japan, respectively) and any entities under their dominion (such as South Africa or Korea). However, other entities are difficult. The United States contains both the United States proper and its holdings (such as the Philippines). There really is no catch-all term like "The American Empire". I'd like to propose that we keep it this way. It may not be 100% accurate across the board, but it keeps the list clean (rather than puting "X Country and Territories" for each entry like this). However, there could be a note at the beginning explaining this. Thoughts? Jlr3001 (talk) 16:33, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

Claim of several nations and their overseas territory are empires is ahistorical but, I agree the nomenclature of these headers doesn't affect the content of this article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.213.167.23 (talk) 04:42, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

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constituent census stats or state census stats/ Palestine
Hi. I could not find the census data for Mandate Palestine as a constituent of the "British" territories, so I added it under Switzerland without statistics.

I do know that there was more than one census conducted by the "British" between 1930 and 1947 in Palestine, but I do not have access.

I moved the mandate under the British Empire and added the numbers from the source "Population Statistics". If anyone can find more accurate information, please feel free to update. Jlr3001 (talk) 13:03, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

The current list sum is 2,164,807,671 as of 18MAY2018. I won't edit the main page but, generally any world (and even national) population estimate is based on very poor methodology. This page does serve as an accurate index between regional populations in 1939 except for east and south Asia. Whose population statistics I believe have always been exponentially over estimated.

French Africa
And where is here Senegal, Mauretania and Cote d'Ivoire? Can you change it, make it complete, please? MBK 15.02.2019

French North Africa[7][note 2] – 16,920,000 constituents[hide] French Algeria – 7,517,000 French Morocco – 6,622,200 French Tunisia – 2,781,000 French Equatorial Africa – 14,131,900 constituents[hide] French Congo – 11,898,700 French Chad – 2,021,000 French West Africa – 13,393,200 constituents[hide] French Sudan – 3,635,100 French Upper Volta – 3,308,000 French Guinea – 2,065,500 Colony of Niger – 1,809,600 French Dahomey – 1,532,000 French Togoland – 1,043,000 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 5.173.57.88 (talk) 14:50, 15 February 2019 (UTC)

Czecho-Slovak Republic
We need accurate figures for the Czecho-Slovak Republic. As of this writing, there is no entry for the Czecho-Slovak Republic in the list. Perhaps a clarification next to the entry for Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

Germany
The population statistic given for Germany, including it's occupied territories is clearly just wrong! Germany (even including the former territories of Austria and Czechoslovakia) did not have anywhere near 1,488,000,000 people; that's as large as the population of China or India today. Also, German territory did not harbour anything like 64% of the earth's total population. More reasonable population estimates are not difficult to find. For example, the WW2 history site Feldgrau.com suggests that Germany only had a population of 68,000,000 in 1938, and that Germany, including "Austria, Memelland and Sudetenland", had a population of 80,600,000 in 1939. See this page. I'm quite certain other historical references will assay similar numbers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.67.126.147 (talk) 07:34, 10 April 2022 (UTC)

something
wikipedia mini displayer for this page is broken Noob251 (talk) 13:30, 30 August 2022 (UTC)

Shouldn’t Egypt be counted separately
From what I’ve read, they got independence in 1922. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.52.16.187 (talk) 06:50, 24 November 2023 (UTC)

United States
The population of the Untied States (including all territories, possessions, etc.) in 1939 was 138,499,069 (see Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1941, Part 2, Table 3 (pg. 2), located here). Brother Anthony (talk) 21:50, 6 July 2024 (UTC)