In the middle of 2023, about 60 percent of the global population was living in Asia.The total world population amounted to 8.1 billion people on the planet. In other words 4.7 billion people were living in Asia as of 2023. Global populationDue to medical advances, better living conditions and the increase of agricultural productivity, the world population increased rapidly over the past century, and is expected to continue to grow. After reaching eight billion in 2023, the global population is estimated to pass 10 billion by 2060. Africa expected to drive population increase Most of the future population increase is expected to happen in Africa. The countries with the highest population growth rate in 2024 were mostly African countries. While around 1.47 billion people live on the continent as of 2024, this is forecast to grow to 3.9 billion by 2100. This is underlined by the fact that most of the countries wit the highest population growth rate are found in Africa. The growing population, in combination with climate change, puts increasing pressure on the world's resources.

Until the 1800s, population growth was incredibly slow on a global level. The global population was estimated to have been around 188 million people in the year 1CE, and did not reach one billion until around 1803. However, since the 1800s, a phenomenon known as the demographic transition has seen population growth skyrocket, reaching eight billion people in 2023, and this is expected to peak at over 10 billion in the 2080s.

The statistic shows the development of the world population from 1950 to 2050. The world population was around 7.38 billion people in 2015.

The global population

As shown above, the total number of people living on Earth has more than doubled since the 1950s, and continues to increase. A look at the development of the world population since the beginning of the Common Era shows that such a surge in numbers is unprecedented. The first significant rise in population occurred during the 14th century, after the Black Death had killed approximately 25 million people worldwide. Subsequently, the global population increased slowly but steadily until it reached record numbers between 1950 and 2000.

The majority of the global population lives on the Asian continent, as a statistic of the world population by continent shows. In around 100 years, it is estimated that population levels on the African continent will have reached similar levels to those we see in Asia today. As for a forecast of the development of the world population, the figures are estimated to have reached more than 10 billion by the 22nd century.

Growing population numbers pose an increasing risk to the planet, since rocketing numbers equal increased consumption of food and resources. Scientists worry that natural resources, such as oil, and food resources will become scarce, endangering the human race and, even more so, the world’s ecosystem. Nowadays, the number of undernourished / starving people worldwide has decreased slightly, but forecasts paint a darker picture.

Fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people) in World was reported at 10.7 per 100 people in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. World - Telephone lines (per 100 people) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on November of 2025.

Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) in Kazakhstan was reported at 127 per 100 people in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Kazakhstan - Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on October of 2025.

Fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people) in Papua New Guinea was reported at 1.69 per 100 people in 2022, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Papua New Guinea - Telephone lines (per 100 people) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on November of 2025.

This portion of the GapMinder data includes one year of numerous country-level indicators of health, wealth and development for 213 countries.

GapMinder collects data from a handful of sources, including the Institute for Health
Metrics and Evaluation, US Census Bureau’s International Database, United Nations Statistics Division, and the World Bank. Source: https://www.gapminder.org/

Variable Name , Description of Indicator & Sources Unique Identifier: Country

1. incomeperperson : 2010 Gross Domestic Product per capita in constant 2000 US$.The inflation but not the differences in the cost of living between countries has been taken into account. [Main Source : World Bank Work Development Indicators]

2. alcconsumption: 2008 alcohol consumption per adult (age 15+), litres Recorded and estimated average alcohol consumption, adult (15+) percapita consumption in liters pure alcohol [Main Source : WHO]

3. armedforcesrate: Armed forces personnel (% of total labor force) [Main Source : Work Development Indicators]

4. breastcancerper100TH : 2002 breast cancer new cases per 100,000 female Number of new cases of breast cancer in 100,000 female residents during the certain year. [Main Source : ARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer)]

5. co2emissions : 2006 cumulative CO2 emission (metric tons), Total amount of CO2 emission in metric tons since 1751. [*Main Source : CDIAC (Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center)] *

6. femaleemployrate : 2007 female employees age 15+ (% of population) Percentage of female population, age above 15, that has been employed during the given year. [ Main Source : International Labour Organization]

7. employrate : 2007 total employees age 15+ (% of population) Percentage of total population, age above 15, that has been employed during the given year. [Main Source : International Labour Organization]

8. HIVrate : 2009 estimated HIV Prevalence % - (Ages 15-49) Estimated number of people living with HIV per 100 population of age group 15-49. [Main Source : UNAIDS online database]

9. Internetuserate: 2010 Internet users (per 100 people) Internet users are people with access to the worldwide network. [Main Source : World Bank]

10. lifeexpectancy : 2011 life expectancy at birth (years) The average number of years a newborn child would live if current mortality patterns were to stay the same. [Main Source : 1) Human Mortality Database, 2) World Population Prospects: , 3) Publications and files by history prof. James C Riley , 4) Human Lifetable Database ]

11. oilperperson : 2010 oil Consumption per capita (tonnes per year and person) [Main Source : BP]

12. polityscore : 2009 Democracy score (Polity) Overall polity score from the Polity IV dataset, calculated by subtracting an autocracy score from a democracy score. The summary measure of a country's democratic and free nature. -10 is the lowest value, 10 the highest. [Main Source : Polity IV Project]

13. relectricperperson : 2008 residential electricity consumption, per person (kWh) . The amount of residential electricity consumption per person during the given year, counted in kilowatt-hours (kWh). [Main Source : International Energy Agency]

14. suicideper100TH : 2005 Suicide, age adjusted, per 100 000 Mortality due to self-inflicted injury, per 100 000 standard population, age adjusted . [Main Source : Combination of time series from WHO Violence and Injury Prevention (VIP) and data from WHO Global Burden of Disease 2002 and 2004.]

15. urbanrate : 2008 urban population (% of total) Urban population refers to people living in urban areas as defined by national statistical offices (calculated using World Bank population estimates and urban ratios from the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects) [Main Source : World Bank]

South Korea: Mobile phone subscribers, per 100 people: The latest value from 2023 is 162.11 subscribers per 100 people, an increase from 148.68 subscribers per 100 people in 2022. In comparison, the world average is 120.02 subscribers per 100 people, based on data from 156 countries. Historically, the average for South Korea from 1960 to 2023 is 52.88 subscribers per 100 people. The minimum value, 0 subscribers per 100 people, was reached in 1960 while the maximum of 162.11 subscribers per 100 people was recorded in 2023.

Democratic Republic of the Congo: Mobile phone subscribers, per 100 people: The latest value from 2023 is 53.19 subscribers per 100 people, an increase from 48.68 subscribers per 100 people in 2022. In comparison, the world average is 120.02 subscribers per 100 people, based on data from 156 countries. Historically, the average for Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1960 to 2023 is 12.34 subscribers per 100 people. The minimum value, 0 subscribers per 100 people, was reached in 1960 while the maximum of 53.19 subscribers per 100 people was recorded in 2023.

Fixed broadband subscriptions (per 100 people) in Belgium was reported at 43.7 per 100 people in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Belgium - Fixed broadband Internet subscribers (per 100 people) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on November of 2025.

Abstract

The World Values Survey (www.worldvaluessurvey.org) is a global network of social scientists studying changing values and their impact on social and political life, led by an international team of scholars, with the WVS association and secretariat headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. The survey, which started in 1981, seeks to use the most rigorous, high-quality research designs in each country. The WVS consists of nationally representative surveys conducted in almost 100 countries which contain almost 90 percent of the world’s population, using a common questionnaire. The WVS is the largest non-commercial, cross-national, time series investigation of human beliefs and values ever executed, currently including interviews with almost 400,000 respondents. Moreover the WVS is the only academic study covering the full range of global variations, from very poor to very rich countries, in all of the world’s major cultural zones. The WVS seeks to help scientists and policy makers understand changes in the beliefs, values and motivations of people throughout the world. Thousands of political scientists, sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists and economists have used these data to analyze such topics as economic development, democratization, religion, gender equality, social capital, and subjective well-being. These data have also been widely used by government officials, journalists and students, and groups at the World Bank have analyzed the linkages between cultural factors and economic development.

Geographic coverage

The survey covers Egypt.

Analysis unit

• Household
• Individual

Universe

The WVS for Egypt covers national population aged 18 years and over, for both sexes.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

1- The sampling frame is the extended roaster of households for the post enumeration survey of the 2006 Census.

2- This frame covered all governorates (except the five frontiers Governorates hosting about 1.8% of the total population), within about 480 segments (average 100 HH).

3- To reduce sampling error, it was only to select 25 HH from each segment to increase the number of segments selected from each Governorate and that Number of segments was proportional to its size according to the 2006 population census.

1. Within Governorates, rural/urban parts were represented by selecting separately the number of segments proportional to its population share according to the 2006 census. Overall, a total of 122 segments were selected (out of which 56 from Urban areas and the balance from Rural areas of each Governorate), thus drawing a self-weighted sample for each Governorate based on its share of the 2006 population census.

2. The sample size was set to be 3000 individuals, to reduce sampling error and to ensure having estimates of adequate precision. The sampling unit would be the individuals 18 years old and over.

3. Both segments were selected separately from the frame of Urban/Rural area for each Governorate using systematic random sampling.

4. Households were also selected within segments (25 households from each segment) using systematic random sampling.

5. Due to rounding, the total number of segments rose to 122 segment, (and the sample size rose to 3050 individuals).

Remarks about sampling:

• The sample tended to be biased to females, as they were represented by 62% of the total sample. So weights was computed to modify the distribution of males and females, according to their distribution in the population. Basically, interviews would be conducted with the head of the household, if he/she exists and is able to answer the questionnaire. If not, another member of the household (who is 18 years or older) would answer the questionnaire. In every segment there was an alternative sample, that was also randomly selected, if an appropriate person within the household, was not available to answer the questionnaire, an alternative sampling unit would be selected. The alternative sample represented only 3.3% of the total sample.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

For each wave, suggestions for questions are solicited by social scientists from all over the world and a final master questionnaire is developed in English. Since the start in 1981 each successive wave has covered a broader range of societies than the previous one. Analysis of the data from each wave has indicated that certain questions tapped interesting and important concepts while others were of little value. This has led to the more useful questions or themes being replicated in future waves while the less useful ones have been dropped making room for new questions. The questionnaire is translated into the various national languages and in many cases independently translated back to English to check the accuracy of the translation. In most countries, the translated questionnaire is pre-tested to help identify questions for which the translation is problematic. In some cases certain problematic questions are omitted from the national questionnaire. WVS requires implementation of the common questionnaire fully and faithfully, in all countries included into one wave. Any alteration to the original questionnaire has to be approved by the EC. Omission of no more than a maximum of 12 questions in any given country can be allowed.

Response rate

3050 Total number of starting names/addresses 3050 - full productive interview

Globally, about 25 percent of the population is under 15 years of age and 10 percent is over 65 years of age. Africa has the youngest population worldwide. In Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 40 percent of the population is below 15 years, and only three percent are above 65, indicating the low life expectancy in several of the countries. In Europe, on the other hand, a higher share of the population is above 65 years than the population under 15 years. Fertility rates The high share of children and youth in Africa is connected to the high fertility rates on the continent. For instance, South Sudan and Niger have the highest population growth rates globally. However, about 50 percent of the world’s population live in countries with low fertility, where women have less than 2.1 children. Some countries in Europe, like Latvia and Lithuania, have experienced a population decline of one percent, and in the Cook Islands, it is even above two percent. In Europe, the majority of the population was previously working-aged adults with few dependents, but this trend is expected to reverse soon, and it is predicted that by 2050, the older population will outnumber the young in many developed countries. Growing global population As of 2025, there are 8.1 billion people living on the planet, and this is expected to reach more than nine billion before 2040. Moreover, the global population is expected to reach 10 billions around 2060, before slowing and then even falling slightly by 2100. As the population growth rates indicate, a significant share of the population increase will happen in Africa.

Effective population size (Ne) is a particularly useful metric for conservation as it affects genetic drift, inbreeding and adaptive potential within populations. Current guidelines recommend a minimum Ne of 50 and 500 to avoid short-term inbreeding and to preserve long-term adaptive potential, respectively. However, the extent to which wild populations reach these thresholds globally has not been investigated, nor has the relationship between Ne and human activities. Through a quantitative review, we generated a dataset with 4610 georeferenced Ne estimates from 3829 unique populations, extracted from 723 articles. These data show that certain taxonomic groups are less likely to meet 50/500 thresholds and are disproportionately impacted by human activities; plant, mammal, and amphibian populations had a <54% probability of reaching = 50 and a <9% probability of reaching = 500. Populations listed as being of conservation concern according to the IUCN Red List had a smaller median than unlisted populations, and this was consistent across all taxonomic groups. was reduced in areas with a greater Global Human Footprint, especially for amphibians, birds, and mammals, however relationships varied between taxa. We also highlight several considerations for future works, including the role that gene flow and subpopulation structure plays in the estimation of in wild populations, and the need for finer-scale taxonomic analyses. Our findings provide guidance for more specific thresholds based on Ne and help prioritize assessment of populations from taxa most at risk of failing to meet conservation thresholds. Methods Literature search, screening, and data extraction A primary literature search was conducted using ISI Web of Science Core Collection and any articles that referenced two popular single-sample Ne estimation software packages: LDNe (Waples & Do, 2008), and NeEstimator v2 (Do et al., 2014). The initial search included 4513 articles published up to the search date of May 26, 2020. Articles were screened for relevance in two steps, first based on title and abstract, and then based on the full text. For each step, a consistency check was performed using 100 articles to ensure they were screened consistently between reviewers (n = 6). We required a kappa score (Collaboration for Environmental Evidence, 2020) of ³ 0.6 in order to proceed with screening of the remaining articles. Articles were screened based on three criteria: (1) Is an estimate of Ne or Nb reported; (2) for a wild animal or plant population; (3) using a single-sample genetic estimation method. Further details on the literature search and article screening are found in the Supplementary Material (Fig. S1). We extracted data from all studies retained after both screening steps (title and abstract; full text). Each line of data entered in the database represents a single estimate from a population. Some populations had multiple estimates over several years, or from different estimation methods (see Table S1), and each of these was entered on a unique row in the database. Data on N̂e, N̂b, or N̂c were extracted from tables and figures using WebPlotDigitizer software version 4.3 (Rohatgi, 2020). A full list of data extracted is found in Table S2. Data Filtering After the initial data collation, correction, and organization, there was a total of 8971 Ne estimates (Fig. S1). We used regression analyses to compare Ne estimates on the same populations, using different estimation methods (LD, Sibship, and Bayesian), and found that the R2 values were very low (R2 values of <0.1; Fig. S2 and Fig. S3). Given this inconsistency, and the fact that LD is the most frequently used method in the literature (74% of our database), we proceeded with only using the LD estimates for our analyses. We further filtered the data to remove estimates where no sample size was reported or no bias correction (Waples, 2006) was applied (see Fig. S6 for more details). Ne is sometimes estimated to be infinity or negative within a population, which may reflect that a population is very large (i.e., where the drift signal-to-noise ratio is very low), and/or that there is low precision with the data due to small sample size or limited genetic marker resolution (Gilbert & Whitlock, 2015; Waples & Do, 2008; Waples & Do, 2010) We retained infinite and negative estimates only if they reported a positive lower confidence interval (LCI), and we used the LCI in place of a point estimate of Ne or Nb. We chose to use the LCI as a conservative proxy for in cases where a point estimate could not be generated, given its relevance for conservation (Fraser et al., 2007; Hare et al., 2011; Waples & Do 2008; Waples 2023). We also compared results using the LCI to a dataset where infinite or negative values were all assumed to reflect very large populations and replaced the estimate with an arbitrary large value of 9,999 (for reference in the LCI dataset only 51 estimates, or 0.9%, had an or > 9999). Using this 9999 dataset, we found that the main conclusions from the analyses remained the same as when using the LCI dataset, with the exception of the HFI analysis (see discussion in supplementary material; Table S3, Table S4 Fig. S4, S5). We also note that point estimates with an upper confidence interval of infinity (n = 1358) were larger on average (mean = 1380.82, compared to 689.44 and 571.64, for estimates with no CIs or with an upper boundary, respectively). Nevertheless, we chose to retain point estimates with an upper confidence interval of infinity because accounting for them in the analyses did not alter the main conclusions of our study and would have significantly decreased our sample size (Fig. S7, Table S5). We also retained estimates from populations that were reintroduced or translocated from a wild source (n = 309), whereas those from captive sources were excluded during article screening (see above). In exploratory analyses, the removal of these data did not influence our results, and many of these populations are relevant to real-world conservation efforts, as reintroductions and translocations are used to re-establish or support small, at-risk populations. We removed estimates based on duplication of markers (keeping estimates generated from SNPs when studies used both SNPs and microsatellites), and duplication of software (keeping estimates from NeEstimator v2 when studies used it alongside LDNe). Spatial and temporal replication were addressed with two separate datasets (see Table S6 for more information): the full dataset included spatially and temporally replicated samples, while these two types of replication were removed from the non-replicated dataset. Finally, for all populations included in our final datasets, we manually extracted their protection status according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Taxa were categorized as “Threatened” (Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered), “Nonthreatened” (Least Concern, Near Threatened), or “N/A” (Data Deficient, Not Evaluated). Mapping and Human Footprint Index (HFI) All populations were mapped in QGIS using the coordinates extracted from articles. The maps were created using a World Behrmann equal area projection. For the summary maps, estimates were grouped into grid cells with an area of 250,000 km2 (roughly 500 km x 500 km, but the dimensions of each cell vary due to distortions from the projection). Within each cell, we generated the count and median of Ne. We used the Global Human Footprint dataset (WCS & CIESIN, 2005) to generate a value of human influence (HFI) for each population at its geographic coordinates. The footprint ranges from zero (no human influence) to 100 (maximum human influence). Values were available in 1 km x 1 km grid cell size and were projected over the point estimates to assign a value of human footprint to each population. The human footprint values were extracted from the map into a spreadsheet to be used for statistical analyses. Not all geographic coordinates had a human footprint value associated with them (i.e., in the oceans and other large bodies of water), therefore marine fishes were not included in our HFI analysis. Overall, 3610 Ne estimates in our final dataset had an associated footprint value.

Chad: Mobile phone subscribers, per 100 people: The latest value from 2023 is 70.19 subscribers per 100 people, an increase from 65.44 subscribers per 100 people in 2022. In comparison, the world average is 120.02 subscribers per 100 people, based on data from 156 countries. Historically, the average for Chad from 1960 to 2023 is 12.59 subscribers per 100 people. The minimum value, 0 subscribers per 100 people, was reached in 1960 while the maximum of 70.19 subscribers per 100 people was recorded in 2023.

Fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people) in South Asia was reported at 1.9 per 100 people in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. South Asia - Telephone lines (per 100 people) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on November of 2025.

The world's population first reached one billion people in 1805, and reached eight billion in 2022, and will peak at almost 10.2 billion by the end of the century. Although it took thousands of years to reach one billion people, it did so at the beginning of a phenomenon known as the demographic transition; from this point onwards, population growth has skyrocketed, and since the 1960s the population has increased by one billion people every 12 to 15 years. The demographic transition sees a sharp drop in mortality due to factors such as vaccination, sanitation, and improved food supply; the population boom that follows is due to increased survival rates among children and higher life expectancy among the general population; and fertility then drops in response to this population growth. Regional differences The demographic transition is a global phenomenon, but it has taken place at different times across the world. The industrialized countries of Europe and North America were the first to go through this process, followed by some states in the Western Pacific. Latin America's population then began growing at the turn of the 20th century, but the most significant period of global population growth occurred as Asia progressed in the late-1900s. As of the early 21st century, almost two-thirds of the world's population lives in Asia, although this is set to change significantly in the coming decades. Future growth The growth of Africa's population, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, will have the largest impact on global demographics in this century. From 2000 to 2100, it is expected that Africa's population will have increased by a factor of almost five. It overtook Europe in size in the late 1990s, and overtook the Americas a few years later. In contrast to Africa, Europe's population is now in decline, as birth rates are consistently below death rates in many countries, especially in the south and east, resulting in natural population decline. Similarly, the population of the Americas and Asia are expected to go into decline in the second half of this century, and only Oceania's population will still be growing alongside Africa. By 2100, the world's population will have over three billion more than today, with the vast majority of this concentrated in Africa. Demographers predict that climate change is exacerbating many of the challenges that currently hinder progress in Africa, such as political and food instability; if Africa's transition is prolonged, then it may result in further population growth that would place a strain on the region's resources, however, curbing this growth earlier would alleviate some of the pressure created by climate change.

Romania: Mobile phone subscribers, per 100 people: The latest value from 2023 is 123.25 subscribers per 100 people, an increase from 121.14 subscribers per 100 people in 2022. In comparison, the world average is 120.02 subscribers per 100 people, based on data from 156 countries. Historically, the average for Romania from 1960 to 2023 is 43.35 subscribers per 100 people. The minimum value, 0 subscribers per 100 people, was reached in 1960 while the maximum of 123.25 subscribers per 100 people was recorded in 2023.

Fixed broadband subscriptions (per 100 people) in Nicaragua was reported at 5.4303 per 100 people in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Nicaragua - Fixed broadband Internet subscribers (per 100 people) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on November of 2025.

Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) in Cayman Islands was reported at 139 per 100 people in 2022, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Cayman Islands - Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on November of 2025.

Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) in Virgin Islands was reported at 91.46 per 100 people in 2022, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Virgin Islands - Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on November of 2025.