What percentage of the world's population lived in the British empire at its greatest extent? Was that the largest empire in history, in terms of percentage of world population?

by gregofthe
Mddcat04

In 1922 (the greatest extent of the empire, population wise) 458 million people were subjects of the English crown. This BBC page has a good breakdown. At this time, the empire controlled the most territory of any empire in history, along with ~25% of the world's population.

It was not, however the largest empire ever as a percentage of the world population. A few larger empires:

  • Mughal Empire 1650 AD - 145 / 500 million (29%)
  • Ming Dynasty 1600 AD - 160 / 562 million (28%)
  • Han Dynasty 1 AD - 58 / 200 million (29%)
  • Qing Dynasty 1800 AD 300 m / 1 billion (30%)
  • (Achaemenid Persian Empire if the high population estimate of 34 M is correct, would have been 34%)

The main takeaway here is that while the British Empire was large in area, there are a lot of people in China, and there have been for a long time.