If we compare the humans that we are today on Earth and those that we were in 1973, we see that we have doubled in population. More than 140 million babies are born in the world each year. Y more than half of all those births happen in Asia, specifically in India and China: 25 million and 16 million each year respectively. However, there has recently been a huge drop in birth rates in hundreds of countries around the world, something that is accelerating an unprecedented demographic crisis.
According to World Bank dataIn 2021, China had 1,412 million people and India, with less size, 1,393 million. The report World Population Prospects points that in 2022 both exceed 1,400 million inhabitants and the situation will change soon: India is expected to overtake its neighbor in 2023. In third position is the US with 340.
To illustrate how much population each country has and how it has evolved over the last few decades, Visual Capitalist has put together a nice graph using the latest data from the United Nations, to see which countries have the most of the planet’s 8 billion people.
You can consult the graph in its maximum resolution here.
As can be seen in the graph and as we have previously told in Magnet, the Chinese population has started to shrink After four decades of prosperity in which increased from 660 million to 1.4 billion. Its population was expected to start to stagnate in 2026-2030, but UN data shows that the turning point has already arrivedin full 2022. According to reports, its population will be reduced by almost half by 2100.
In fact, India has already overtaken China as the most populous nation in the world. The phenomenon has been going on for many years, even before the Covid increased the reluctance to have children. There is no one reason that explains the whole picture. As we discussed in this other articlehave added a social and cultural change not very different from the one in the Westwith a changing priorities and perspectives that are no longer based on procreate. And it happens even after lifting the “one child policy”.
Europe tells another story. In 1973, there were six countries on the continent on this list of fastest growing countries. Today, only Russia and Germany remainand the latter will soon come out of the ranking. Ukraine is expected to drop to 41st place due to the war. Since the invasion began, almost 14 million border crossings into other countries have been recorded.
On the other hand, several countries in Africa such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have experienced surprising population growth. These nations are expected lead the world’s population growth in the coming decades and that by 2100 they will be a quarter of all human beings in the world. Why? Due to its high birth rate: Nigeria has a rate almost double the world average: 34.2.
According to experts, the peak of world population will be reached in the 2060s, with 9.7 billion. And then it will go down to 8,800 in 2100. This drop in births will cause the global median age continues to rise and will negatively affect economies. Not only will we have fewer young workers, but there will be a much more unstable pension system. In other words, we will live in a world with an increasingly aging society which will yield much less.
Graphics: Visual Capitalist