The population of planet Earth has reached 8 billion. In 2023, India will surpass China and become the most densely populated country in the world.
The United Nations reported this on the morning of November 15.
The population is now growing at the slowest rate since 1950. According to a UN forecast, the worldʼs population may grow to approximately 8.5 billion in 2030 and to 9.7 billion in 2050. It will peak at about 10.4 billion people in the 2080s and remain at that level until 2100.
More than half of the projected increase in world population by 2050 will be concentrated in eight countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and the United Republic of Tanzania. Sub-Saharan Africa will account for more than half of the increase expected by 2050.
In recent decades, the birth rate has decreased significantly in many countries. For example, the population of 61 countries is projected to decline by 1% or more between 2022 and 2050 due to persistently low birth rates and, in some cases, increased levels of emigration.
Also, according to forecasts, the share of the worldʼs population aged 65 and older will increase from 10% in 2022 to 16% in 2050. By then, the number of people aged 65 and over worldwide will have more than doubled. Life expectancy at birth reached 72.8 years in 2019, almost 9 years more than in 1990. Further declines in mortality will lead to a global average life expectancy of about 77.2 years in 2050.
- Chinaʼs birth rate fell to a record low in 2021, despite government efforts to encourage couples to have more children ahead of a looming demographic crisis.
- In Europe, after the quarantine in 2020, the birth rate began to fall, and the predicted baby boom did not happen.