Over the last few decades, the global population has been booming. Diseases and health threats are still here, but humanity has learned to protect itself from most of them. As a result, in 2013, the world’s population was estimated at nearly 7.2 billion. By the end of this year, it is expected to reach around 7.24 billion.
New data collected and organized by GeoHive, however, predicts that this is just the beginning and that we are yet to witness a global population boom.
According to the data, by 2024, the number of people who live on the earth will be 8 billion. In less than 20 more years, in 2040, it will hit the 9 billion mark and by 2062, the world’s population will amount to the astonishing 10 billion people.
However, global population growth rate is predicted to slow down. Over the last few years, it was estimated that the world population increased by an average of 1.17% per year. But it in 2050, this percentage is expected to drop to under 0.5%.
The countries that will witness the most impressive population development over the upcoming decades are said to be India and China. This is not really surprising, since this trend has been witnessed over the last few years. What is interesting, however, is that India will surpass China and become the world’s most populated country. According to researchers from GeoHive, this will happen by 2050 when the population in India is predicted to hit 1.6 billion, whereas that of China is expected to amount around 1.38 billion. Despite, China’s Macau will have the highest population density by 2050, followed, not by a town or an area in China or India, but by… Monaco.
However, these are not the only changes in the global population that will take place over the next 3-4 decades. The top 10 of the world’s most populated countries will be quite different from what we know it today. For instance, Japan and the Russian Federation will be pushed out of the first 10 list by 2050. Even more interesting is the fact that their place will probably be taken by Ethiopia and the Philippines, since their population is expected to massively increase over the upcoming decades.
Countries with the largest numbers of population in 2050:
- India
- China
- Nigeria
- US
- Indonesia
- Pakistan
- Brazil
- Bangladesh
- Ethiopia
- Philippines
The United Arab Emirates was also examined in the report. According to it, the country will see a population of 10 million by 2020. In addition to that, by 2030, nearly 90% of UAE’s population will live in urban areas. The tendency of increasing population will be witnessed in all Gulf countries. Also, this trend is expected to be registered almost all over the world. Still, there will be a few exceptions. Countries in Eastern Europe, particularly the Balkan region, are said to witness the deepest decrease in population over the next 50 years. They will joined by a few Latin American countries, like Cuba and Puerto Rico.
Interesting, even some of today’s strongest economies will see a population decrease. Germany and Japan are expected to be among them.
In addition, GeoHive has found that the global population will get older and older. Even though population aged between 0 and 34 will continue to dominate, the group of people aged above that level will greatly increase and almost reach that of the young.
It seems that the world will be much more different in the future. However, scientists warn that there are always unexpected factors that may influence the development of the global population in unpredictable ways. Therefore, these facts and figures should not be taken for granted.
