The global population in 2024 reached around 8.156 billion, marking an increase of around 82 million people compared to last year’s 8.083 billion, according to recent estimates by the German Foundation for World Population. The world’s population surpassed the 8 billion mark in November 2022.
The foundation explained that while the global population continues to grow, the rate of increase has slowed considerably, with the current global fertility rate averaging 2.2 children per woman. Population growth remains particularly rapid in Africa, where the population is expected to double over the next two decades.
The United Nations expects the global population to grow by more than 2 billion people in the next decades and peak in the 2080s at around 10.3 billion, a major shift from a decade ago. It added that the global population is then expected to decline to around 10.2 billion by the end of the century.
Global population growth uneven
“Changes in global population are uneven, and the demographic landscape is evolving, with rapid population growth in some places and rapid aging in others, making reliable population data more important than ever,” said the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
As of 2024, population size has peaked in 63 countries and areas, including China, Germany, Japan and the Russian Federation. The total population of this group is projected to decline by 14 percent over the next 30 years. For another 48 countries and areas, including Brazil, Iran, Türkiye and Vietnam, the population is projected to peak between 2025 and 2054.
In the remaining 126 countries, including India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and the United States of America, the population is expected to increase through 2054 and, potentially, peak in the second half of the century or later.
Several countries including Angola, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger and Somalia, will likely see very rapid growth, with their total population doubling between 2024 and 2054.
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Population to continue aging
By the late 2070s, the UN expects the number of people aged 65 or older to surpass the number of children under age 18, while the number of people aged 80 and higher is projected to be larger than the number of infants under age 1 by the mid-2030s. Even in countries that are still growing rapidly and have relatively youthful populations, the number of people aged 65 or older is expected to rise over the next 30 years.
