By Elena Dimitrova
If you thought 7 billion people was a bit too much, how does 8 billion sound? On November 15th, the United Nations announced that the global population had officially reached 8 billion people, with China and India having the highest number of citizens at over 2.6 billion combined. That is 32.5% of the world’s population living in just two countries.
Global population chart, via Visual Capitalist
This rapid increase of 1 billion people in just over a decade is expected to lead to critical economic and environmental issues- with more people comes a higher demand for resources, and consequently more pollution. The World Food Program has estimated that 828 million people go to bed hungry and since 2019 the number of people facing hunger has increased by 210 million. That is in just three years!
Environmentally, experts have said that the most population growth can be seen in the global south, which has lower carbon emissions. An increase in population in the global north would have been more threatening to the environment, however, these countries are actually declining in population.
But what does all this mean for the future? Well…
Global fertility is declining rapidly. In contrast to the 1950’s, when people were giving birth to 5 babies on average, by 2050 that number is expected to have dropped down to 2.
India will take China’s place as the most populated country. Its population is expected to continue to rise over the years, as opposed to China’s, which will begin to decrease.
The percentage of overall population growth is said to start its descent, and lower to 1%.
The average life expectancy is said to increase by 2030.
About the Author: Elena Dimitrova
My name is Elena- a Bulgarian with a passion for fashion and writing. Growing up in a journalistic family I always knew that writing and the media were what I was going to pursue as a career. I began to experiment with content creation at age 14, which later led me to hosting my own podcast about loneliness called “For loners only” and having two blogs. I find peace in books (especially novels) and I aspire to write my own one soon.
(This piece was edited by Amber Turner-Brightman)
Comments