Current World Population and Future Projections

Current World Population and Future Projections The world population has grown tremendously over the past 2,000 years. In 1999, the world population passed the six-billion mark. By March of 2018, the official world population had jumped over the seven-billion mark to an estimated  7.46 billion. World Population Growth Humans had been around for tens of thousands of years by the year 1 A.D. when the Earths population was an estimated 200 million. It hit the billion mark in 1804 and doubled by 1927. It doubled again in less than 50 years to four  billion in 1975. Year Population 1 200 million 1000 275 million 1500 450 million 1650 500 million 1750 700 million 1804 1 billion 1850 1.2 billion 1900 1.6 billion 1927 2 billion 1950 2.55 billion 1955 2.8 billion 1960 3 billion 1965 3.3 billion 1970 3.7 billion 1975 4 billion 1980 4.5 billion 1985 4.85 billion 1990 5.3 billion 1995 5.7 billion 1999 6 billion 2006 6.5 billion 2009 6.8 billion 2011 7 billion 2025 8 billion 2043 9 billion 2083 10 billion Concerns for an Increasing Number of People While the Earth can only support a limited number of people, the issue is not so much about space as it is a matter of resources like food and water. According to author and population expert  David Satterthwaite, the concern is about the number of consumers and the scale and nature of their consumption. Thus, the human population can generally meet its basic needs as it grows, but not at the scale of consumption that some lifestyles and cultures currently support. While data is collected on population growth, it is difficult for even sustainability professionals to understand what will happen on a global scale when the worlds population reaches 10 or 15 billion people. Overpopulation is not the biggest concern, as enough land exists. The focus would primarily be on making use of uninhabited or underpopulated land. Regardless, birth rates have been falling around the world, which may slow down population growth in the future.  As of 2017, the total fertility rate for the world was 2.5, down from 2.8 in 2002 and 5.0 in 1965, but still at a rate that allows population growth. Growth Rates Highest in Poorest Countries According to World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision, most of the worlds population growth is in poor countries. The 47 least developed countries are expected to see their collective population nearly double from 2017s one billion to 1.9 billion by 2050. Thats thanks to a fertility rate of 4.3 per woman. Some countries continue to see their populations explode, such as Niger with a 2017 fertility rate of 6.49, Angola at 6.16, and Mali at 6.01. In contrast, the fertility rate in many developed countries was below replacement value (more loss of people than those born to replace them). As of 2017, the fertility rate in the United States was 1.87. Others include Singapore at 0.83, Macau at 0.95,  Lithuania at 1.59, the Czech Republic at 1.45, Japan at 1.41, and Canada at 1.6. According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the worlds population has been rising at a rate of roughly 83 million people  every year, and the trend is expected to continue, even though fertility rates have been dropping in almost all regions of the world. Thats because the worlds overall fertility rate still exceeds the rate of zero population growth. The population-neutral fertility rate is estimated at 2.1 births per woman.