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World Population to Hit 8.5 Billion by 2030, U.N. says

U.N. News Service

The world’s population is projected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030, 9.7 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100, according to a new United Nations report released July 29, 2015. The current world population hovers at 7.3 billion.

India is projected to surpass China as the most populous nation by 2022, and Nigeria will become the world’s third largest by population in 2050. Between 2015 and 2050, half of the world’s population growth will occur in nine countries: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, the United States, Indonesia and Uganda, the U.N. report projects.

“Most of the projected increase in the world’s population can be attributed to a short list of high-fertility countries, mainly in Africa, or countries with already large populations,” according to the report, “2015 Revision of World Population Prospects,” the 24th round of official U.N. population estimates and projections, which was produced by the U.N.’s Economic and Social Affairs Department.

At present, China and India remain the two largest countries in the world, each with more than 1 billion people, representing 19 and 18 percent of the world’s population, respectively. Among the 10 largest countries in the world today, five are in Asia: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan, the report said.

The report also projected that by 2050, the populations of six countries — China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and the United States — are expected to exceed 300 million.

U.N. member states are in the process of crafting a successor agenda to the landmark Millennium Development Goals, which wrap up at the end of 2015. A new framework, focused on poverty eradication, social inclusion and preserving the health of the planet, is set to be adopted at a special U.N. summit in New York in September 2015.

Understanding the demographic changes that are likely to unfold over the coming years “is key to the design and implementation of the new development agenda,” according to Wu Hongbo, the U.N. undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs.

Adapted from a U.N. News Centre article. For full story, please see www.un.org/news

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