World population to reach 8 billion, UN says

Nov. 15 is the day the United Nations Population Division report has pegged for the world’s population to cross the 8 billion mark. An expert said the day was a rough estimate and could be off by as much as a year. In a report released Monday — July 11 is World Population Day — the Population Division also said that the population growth rate dropped by 1 percent in 2020 for the first time since 1950.

Who’s growing the most? India is projected to overtake China as the world’s most populous country by next year. The Population Division forecasts that the global population will grow to 8.5 billion by 2030, 9.7 billion by 2050, and 10.4 billion in the 2080s. The report says most of that growth will be concentrated in India, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Tanzania.

Dig deeper: Read June Cheng’s piece in WORLD Magazine about how China’s three-child policy won’t reverse its current population decline.