Tannuka Juneja
The world population will reach 8 billion on November 15, 2022, according to the World Population Prospects report, which also projects that India will overtake China as the world’s most populous country by 2023.
The latest projections from the United Nations, published on the occasion of World Population Day, suggest that the number of inhabitants of the planet could reach around 8.5 billion in 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050. It is projected to reach a peak of around 10,400 million people during the 2080s and will remain at that level until 2100.
However, the world population is growing at its slowest annual rate since 1950, down from 1% in 2020.
Fertility has declined markedly in recent decades in many countries. Currently, two-thirds of the world’s population lives in a country or area where fertility is less than 2.1 births per woman, a level approximated to maintain the population level in places with low mortality. The population of 61 countries or areas is projected to decline by 1% or more between 2022 and 2050, due to their persistently low levels of fertility and, in some cases, their high emigration rates.
The report said that “India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country during 2023.” The world’s two most populous regions in 2022 were Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, with 2.3 billion people, representing 29 per cent of the global population, and Central and Southern Asia, with 2.1 billion, representing 26 per cent of the total world population.
China and India accounted for the largest populations in these regions, with more than 1.4 billion each in 2022.
More than half of the projected increase in global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in just eight countries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania.
