The global population is expected to reach eight billion on November 15, the United Nations has forecast, with India set to overtake China as the world’s most populous country next year
The UN noted on Monday it had taken hundreds of thousands of years for the world population to reach one billion and only 200 years to grow sevenfold. In 2011, it stood at seven billion.While the forecast by the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs said the world’s population is growing at its slowest pace since 1950, it said the effect of the previous rapid growth would be felt for years to come.
“[The] dramatic growth has been driven largely by increasing numbers of people surviving to reproductive age, and has been accompanied by major changes in fertility rates, increasing urbanization and accelerating migration,” the UN said. “These trends will have far-reaching implications for generations to come.
The report forecast the global population to reach 8.5 billion in 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050, peaking at about 10.4 billion people in the 2080s before steadying at that level until 2100.
The UN said while the growth in population was indicative of advances in health and economic development, it also underlined the need for effective policies to tackle some of the world’s most pressing issues.
While the forecast by the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs said the world’s population is growing at its slowest pace since 1950, it said the effect of the previous rapid growth would be felt for years to come.
“Progress is not universal, throwing inequality into razor-sharp relief,” it said. “The same concerns and challenges raised 11 years ago remain or have worsened: Climate change, violence, discrimination.”
People across the globe observe July 11 as the World Population Day – as designated by the United Nations to raise awareness about reproductive health and achieve sustainable development around the world.
The theme this year is focused on safeguarding the health and rights of women and girls around the world, especially during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.Between 2019 and 2020, the world’s population grew by 1.1 percent. That may sound like a small number but it is more than 80 million people. While the world’s population is expected to increase over the next few decades, the speed at which it grows is slowing down.
The population of India is expected to overtake China by 2024, based on projections made by the UN’s Population Division. India would then become the world’s most populous country comprising one out of every six people on the Earth.
The animation below shows the top 10 fastest-growing countries per decade since the 1950s.
The fastest-growing continent over the past five years was Africa (2.51 percent) and the slowest growing was Europe (0.12 percent). In countries in the Middle East, an influx of foreign workers combined with a higher standard of living led to the sharpest population increases over the decades.
More than half the rise forecast in the world’s population in the coming decades will be concentrated in just eight countries, according to the report.
It said they are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania.If you are curious, the countries with the maximum decreases in population size over the past five years were: Lithuania (-1.48 percent), Latvia (-1.15 percent), Venezuela (-1.13 percent), Bosnia and Herzegovina (-0.89 percent) and Bulgaria (-0.71 percent).