On Tuesday, the world’s population surpassed 8 billion, and the United Nations predicts that within a year, India will overtake China as the world’s most populous nation.
Since 1950, the world’s population has more than tripled, with death rates down and life expectancies rising, mostly as a result of improved nutrition, access to clean drinking water, improved sanitation, and the development of vaccinations and antibiotics.
According to the U.N., human life expectancy at birth grew by about nine years to 72 years old between 1990 and 2019. Due to high rates of child and maternal mortality, conflict, and the HIV epidemic, people in the poorest countries, nevertheless, passed away around seven years earlier than the worldwide average.
In 2021, life expectancy decreased by a year to 71, largely as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic’s impacts. However, it is anticipated that persons born in 2050 will live an average of 77 years.
The world population is currently rising at its slowest rate since 1950 despite the fact that humanity is greater than it has ever been due to families having fewer children. According to U.N. projections, the population will reach a peak of 10.4 billion in the 2080s and continue to do so until the 2100s.
Today, two-thirds of people reside in nations where women typically give birth to two children, compared to an average of five in 1950. According to the U.N., the number of people 65 and older is anticipated to rise by 6% globally by 2050.
By 2050, the population of just eight nations—the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Tanzania—will account for half of the global population growth.
China and India, with 1.4 billion each, made up the majority of the population in South and East Asia, which was the region of the globe with the two highest populations in 2022. Even though China has the largest population in the world, India will overtake it by 2023 as its population begins to decline.