India’s population is expected to surpass China’s in about seven years and Nigeria is projected to overtake the US to become the third-most populous nation in the world shortly before 2050, a UN report said.
The report released on Wednesday by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ Population Division forecasts that the world population of nearly 7.6 billion is to increase to 8.6 billion by 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100.
It said about 83 million people are added to the world’s population every year and the upward trend is expected to continue even with a continuing decline in fertility rates, which have fallen steadily since the 1960s.
The report includes information on the populations of 233 countries or areas in the world, population division director John Wilmoth said at a news conference.
“The population in Africa is notable for its rapid rate of growth and it is anticipated that over half of global population growth between now and 2050 will take place in that region,” he said. “At the other extreme, it is expected that the population of Europe will, in fact, decline somewhat in the coming decades.”
The agency forecasts that from now through 2050, half of the world’s population growth is to be concentrated in just nine countries — India, Nigeria, Congo, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, the US, Uganda and Indonesia.
During the same period, the populations of 26 African nations are expected to at least double, it added
Nigeria, the world’s seventh-largest country, has the fastest-growing population of the 10 most populous nations worldwide, and the report projects it is to surpass the US shortly before mid-century.
The projections also forecast that China, which has 1.4 billion inhabitants, is to be replaced as the world’s most populous country in about 2024 by India, which now has 1.3 billion inhabitants.
The report, titled The World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision, said fertility has been declining in nearly all regions.
Between 2010 and 2015 “the world’s women had two-and-a-half births per woman over a lifetime, but this number varies widely around the world,” Wilmoth said.
“Europe has the lowest fertility level, estimated at 1.6 births per woman in the most recent period, while Africa has the highest fertility, with around 4.7 births per woman,” he said.
More and more countries have fertility rates below the level of about 2.1 births per woman needed to replace the current generation, the report said.
From 2010 to 2015, fertility was below the replacement level in 83 nations comprising 46 percent of the world’s population, it said.
The 10 most populous countries with low fertility levels are China, the US, Brazil, Russia, Japan, Vietnam, Germany, Iran, Thailand and the UK, the report said.
Low fertility levels also lead to an older population, the report added.
It forecasts that the number of people aged 60 or above is to more than double from 962 million to 2.1 billion in 2050 and more than triple to 3.1 billion in 2100.
A quarter of Europe’s population is already aged 60 or over, and that share is projected to reach 35 percent in 2050, then remain at about that level for the rest of the century, the report said.
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
The Russian minister of foreign affairs warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea as he visited the ally country for talks on further solidifying their booming military and other cooperation. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov spoke on Saturday in Wonsan City, North Korea, where he met North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and conveyed greetings from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim during the meeting reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “unconditionally support and encourage all measures” taken by Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow share identical views on “all strategic issues in
‘FALSE NARRATIVE’: China and the Solomon Islands inked a secretive security pact in 2022, which is believed to be a prelude to building a Chinese base, which Beijing denied The Australian government yesterday said it expects China to spy on major military drills it is conducting with the US and other allies. It also renewed a charge — denounced by Beijing as a “false narrative” — that China wants to establish a military base in the South Pacific. The comments by a government minister came as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a six-day visit to China to bolster recently repaired trade ties. More than 30,000 military personnel from 19 nations are set to join in the annual Talisman Sabre exercises from yesterday across Australia and Papua New Guinea. “The Chinese military have
The US Department of Education on Tuesday said it opened a foreign funding investigation into the University of Michigan (UM) while alleging it found “inaccurate and incomplete disclosures” in a review of the university’s foreign reports, after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the US. As part of the investigation, the department asked the university to share, within 30 days, tax records related to foreign funding, a list of foreign gifts, grants and contracts with any foreign source, and other documents, the department said in a statement and in a letter to
RSS