As the world gets ready to hit eight billion people, the United Nations Population Fund is busy making calculations.
On UNFPA’s website, there is a clock counting down every second as a new baby is born to get the world to 8 billion just today.
UNFPA predicts that the next one billion mark will be reached in 2037, to get the population to 9 billion people.
“Africa and Asia will be the largest contributors to the 9 billion, with India leading after surpassing China in population growth to be the world’s most populous country,” UNFPA said.
India contributed 177 million people to the 8 billion mark while China contributed 73 million.
To reach 8 million, Africa and Asia also led the growth with 1.4 billion and 4.7 billion respectively.
“Europe’s contribution to 9 billion in 2037 will be negative because of their declining population,” they said.
The World population in 1974 was 4 billion, then it was 5 billion in 1987 and 6 billion in 1999.
By 2011, we had hit 7 billion and 11 years later, we are at 8 billion.
UNFPA predicts that the population will be up to 10 billion by 2058 and then it will stagnate as birth rates also decline.
“By 2037, 400 million people will be aged 65 years and above, 150 million will be 15 to 29 years and children aged 0 to 14 will decline,” they said.
