31st July, 2015
The world’s population is expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030 and top 11 billion by the end of this century, according to new UN projections.
The work of the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, the 2015 Revision of World Population Prospects report also projects that the population of India will pass that of China by 2022 while Nigeria is expected to overtake the US as the third most populous country in 35 years.
It also shows that during the next 35 years, half of the world”s population growth is expected to be concentrated in just nine countries – India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, the US, Indonesia and Uganda. By 2050, it is anticipated that six countries – China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the US – will have populations exceeding 300 million.
Other projections contained in the report show:
‚Äö√Ѭ¢ Africa is expected to account for more than half of the world’s population growth in the next 35 years with the populations of 28 African countries expected to double in this period;
• the population aged 60 and over, currently at 0.9 billion, is expected to top 3.2 billion by 2100, with 34 per cent of Europeans projected to be in this age group by 2050;
• global life expectancy at birth is expected to lift from the current estimate of 70 years to 83 years between 2095 and 2100 but the number of children per woman is expected to drop from 2.5 to two over the same period.
John Wilmoth, director of the UN”s Population Division, said the concentration of population growth in the world’s poorest countries will present challenges, "making it more difficult to eradicate poverty and inequality, to combat hunger and malnutrition, and to expand educational enrolment and health systems, all of which are crucial to the success of the new sustainable development agenda."
– DAVID ADAMS
