The world population will reach 8 billion people by next November 15, practically in three months: according to a projection of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, which also predicts that India will overtake China as the most populous country in the world. world by 2023.
The eighth billion inhabitants of the Earth is “a reminder of our shared responsibility to take care of our planet and a moment to reflect on what are the fields in which we still fail to respect our mutual commitments”, he noted. about the Secretary General of the United Nations Anthony Guterres in a statement, in which, although there is no lack of arguments, from climate change to the war that is already generating famines in Africa, he preferred not to mention concrete cases.
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On the contrary, he wanted to give a positive connotation to the new milestone: “This is also an opportunity to celebrate our diversity, recognize our common humanity and marvel at the advances in health that have lengthened life spans and drastically reduced rates of maternal and infant mortality “, said the head of the United Nations.
In reality, according to data from the UN department that made the forecasts, the world population is currently growing at the slowest pace since 1950. The world population could therefore reach about 8.5 billion in 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050, to then peak around 10.4 billion in 2080 and remain at this level until 2100.
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The report recalls that it took hundreds of thousands of years for the world‘s population to grow to 1 billion, then in just another 200 years or so, it grew sevenfold. This growth has been driven in large part by the high numbers of people surviving to reproductive age and has been accompanied by major changes in fertility rates, increased urbanization and accelerated migration.
While there is a net decline in fertility in several so-called developed countries, more than half of the expected population increase in the coming decades will be concentrated in eight countries, according to the United Nations department. These are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania.
“These trends will have far-reaching implications for generations to come,” the UN stresses. The recent past has seen huge changes in fertility rates and life expectancy. In the early 1970s, women had an average of 4.5 children each; in 2015, total fertility worldwide had dropped to below 2.5 children per woman. Meanwhile, the global average lifespan has increased, from 64.6 years in the early 1990s to 72.6 years in 2019.