Which/What country has the fourth largest population

Question

a. Which country has the fourth largest population in the world?

b. What country has the fourth largest population in the world?

c. Which country has the world's fourth largest population?

d. What country has the world's fourth largest population?

Which of the above four sentence is the most natural? Also, is there any better expression which means the same?

Xerxes · Accepted Answer

seagulla. Which country has the fourth largest population in the world?

Typically, you'd use this one if you had a certain limited list or set of countries and you needed to choose a country from that list/set.

seagullb. What country has the fourth largest population in the world?

Typically, you'd use this one if you had no such list/set.

seagullc. Which country has the world's fourth largest population?

This sentence is fine. Please see my comment for your first sentence to understand when to use "which".

seagulld. What country has the world's fourth largest population?

This sentence is fine as well. Please see my comment for your second sentence to understand when to use "what".

seagullWhich of the above four sentence is the most natural?

Stylistically, I would prefer either (a) or (b), but there is really nothing wrong with (c) and (d). Whether you should use (a) or (b) depends on whether there is a limited number/set of countries or not.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

What country ranks fourth in terms of population size?

Seagull · Answer

I understand.
Thank you very much indeed, Xerxes.

Seagull · Answer

Thank you so much, AlpheccaStars.

Which/What country has the fourth largest population

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