Nigeria has the largest population in Africa. As of 2025, the country counted over 237.5 million individuals, whereas Ethiopia, which ranked second, has around 135.5 million inhabitants. Egypt registered the largest population in North Africa, reaching nearly 118.4 million people. In terms of inhabitants per square kilometer, Nigeria only ranked seventh, while Mauritius had the highest population density on the whole African continent in 2023. The fastest-growing world region Africa is the second most populous continent in the world, after Asia. Nevertheless, Africa records the highest growth rate worldwide, with figures rising by over two percent every year. In some countries, such as Chad, South Sudan, Somalia, and the Central African Republic, the population increase peaks at over 3.4 percent. With so many births, Africa is also the youngest continent in the world. However, this coincides with a low life expectancy. African cities on the rise The last decades have seen high urbanization rates in Asia, mainly in China and India. African cities are also growing at large rates. Indeed, the continent has three megacities and is expected to add four more by 2050. Furthermore, Africa's fastest-growing cities are forecast to be Bujumbura, in Burundi, and Zinder, Nigeria, by 2035.

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.

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.

This data set consists of 83 digital maps that were produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for the World Bank as part of a Global Farming Systems Study. The maps are distributed through the FAO-UN GeoNetwork Portal to Spatial Data and Information.

As part of the World Bank's review of its rural development strategy, the Bank sought the assistance of FAO in evaluating how farming systems might change and adapt over the next thirty years. Amongst other objectives, the World Bank asked FAO to provide guidance on priorities for investment in food security, poverty reduction, and economic growth, and in particular to identify promising approaches and technologies that will contribute to these goals. The results of the study are summarized in a set of seven documents, comprising six regional reports and a global overview. The global overview, which synthesizes the results of the six regional analyses as well as discussing global trends, cross-cutting issues and possible implementation modalities, presents an overview of the complete study. The global document is supplemented by two case study reports of development issues of importance to farming systems globally.

The six regions studied include:

East Asia Pacific East Europe and Central Asia Latin America and Caribbean Middle East and North Africa South Asia Sub-Saharan Africa

Map coverages for each region include the following:

Average precipitation Average temperature Elevation Irrigation intensity Land cover Length of growing period Livestock stocking density Major environmental constraints Major farming systems NOAA Satellite imagery (shaded relief imagery and ocean floor bathymetry) Permanent crop and arable land Rural population Slope Total population

The map coverages were prepared by FAO based on the following data sources:

Doll, P. and Siebert, S. 1999. A Digital Global Map of Irrigated Areas, Report No A9901, Centre for Environmental Systems Research, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany.

Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Data and Maps 1999, Volume 1. World Worldsat Color Shaded Relief Image. Based on 1996 NOAA weather satellite images, with enhanced shaded relief imagery and ocean floor relief data (bathymetry) to provide a land and undersea topographic view. ESRI, Redlands, California, USA.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Land and Water Development Division (AGL) with the collaboration of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). 2000. Global Agro-Ecological Zones Study. FAO, Rome, Italy.

Gomes, R. 1999. Major Environmental Constraints for Agricultural Production Project. Based on FAOCLIM database, ARTEMIS NDVI imagery, and soil and terrain data provided by Soil Resources Management and Conservation Service. FAO-GIS. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Environment and Natural Resources Service, Rome, Italy.

Leemans, R. and Cramer, W. 1991. The IIASA Database for Mean Monthly Values of Temperature, Precipitation and Cloudiness on a Global Terrestrial Grid. Research Report RR-91-18. November 1991. International Institute of Applied Systems Analyses, Laxenburg, pp. 61.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory, LandScan Global Population 1998 Database. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.

Slingenbergh, J. Livestock Distribution, Production and Diseases: Towards a Global Livestock Atlas. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), AGAH, Rome, Italy. (aka Global Livestock Production and Health Atlas (GLiPHA))

U.S. Geological Survey, EROS Data Center. 1996. GTOPO30 Digital Data Set. EDC, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA.

1. Forecast atlas of nitrate concentrations in global groundwater. The map was developed by applying all selected integrated machine-learning models to the 15 variables that exhibited the most statistically significant predictive power. Concentration prediction maps provide precise locations and specific concentrations of groundwater nitrates, effectively capturing high-value areas observed in field measurements. However, they do not represent the absolute true values of the aquifer onsite. Aligned with the objectives of exceedance probability map sets, the focus lies in identifying regions where elevated nitrate levels may exist, especially in heterogeneous aquifers where field investigations are challenging or impossible, thereby estimating the impact on the potentially affected population. Notably, high-value areas are widespread in African regions, despite limited modeling data, extensive research supports the distribution of elevated nitrate concentrations in Africa. However, predictions of nitrate concentrations in spatially contiguous desert zones in northern Africa were not considered. This decision was made after analyzing a combination of measured data (training data), land use type, and population distribution. #2. Probability of exceeding the WHO drinking water standard (50 mg/L) for nitrates in groundwater. The map of nitrate exceedance probabilities was created by applying the final integrated machine-learning model to 45 natural and anthropogenic-dominated predictor variables.