Tantan – In its 2022 World Population Prospects report published on Monday, July 11, the United Nations predicted that the world’s population will reach eight billion by November 15, 2022.
The report also forecasts that the global population will reach 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050, and then peak at around 10.4 billion during the 2080s, where it will remain until 2100.
The annual report noted that the rate of world population growth slowed to less than 1% in 2020, the lowest rate since 1950, adding that fertility has significantly decreased in several countries in recent decades.
Two-third of the world’s population reside in regions or countries where lifetime fertility is below 2.1 births per woman, “roughly the level required for zero growth in the long run, for a population with low mortality,” the report added.
The report further predicts a population decline of at least 1% in 61 countries or areas over the next 30 years, attributing the decline to both a persistent low fertility rate and increased emigration levels.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has had an effect on population change,” added the same source, explaining that the global life expectancy at birth decreased to 71 years in 2021, compared to 72.9 in 2019.
The pandemic’s repeated waves may have temporarily reduced the number of births and pregnancies, the report indicated.
Eight nations – the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Tanzania – will account for more than half of the expected growth in the world’s population by 2050.
India is forecasted to replace China as the world’s most populated nation by 2023.
