In 2024, Generation Z represented 24.6 percent of the global population, making them the largest generation group in the world, according to the source. In 2030, Millennials were forecast to represent 21.6 percent of the population worldwide.
By 2030, the middle-class population in Asia-Pacific is expected to increase from 1.38 billion people in 2015 to 3.49 billion people. In comparison, the middle-class population of sub-Saharan Africa is expected to increase from 114 million in 2015 to 212 million in 2030.
Worldwide wealth
While the middle-class has been on the rise, there is still a huge disparity in global wealth and income. The United States had the highest number of individuals belonging to the top one percent of wealth holders, and the value of global wealth is only expected to increase over the coming years. Around 57 percent of the world’s population had assets valued at less than 10,000 U.S. dollars; while less than one percent had assets of more than million U.S. dollars. Asia had the highest percentage of investable assets in the world in 2018, whereas Oceania had the highest percent of non-investable assets.
The middle-class
The middle class is the group of people whose income falls in the middle of the scale. China accounted for over half of the global population for middle-class wealth in 2017. In the United States, the debate about the middle class “disappearing” has been a popular topic due to the increase in wealth to the top billionaires in the nation. Due to this, there have been arguments to increase taxes on the rich to help support the middle-class.
The West Africa Coastal Vulnerability Mapping: Population Projections, 2030 and 2050 data set is based on an unreleased working version of the Gridded Population of the World (GPW), Version 4, year 2010 population count raster but at a coarser 5 arc-minute resolution. Bryan Jones of Baruch College produced country-level projections based on the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 4 (SSP4). SSP4 reflects a divided world where cities that have relatively high standards of living, are attractive to internal and international migrants. In low income countries, rapidly growing rural populations live on shrinking areas of arable land due to both high population pressure and expansion of large-scale mechanized farming by international agricultural firms. This pressure induces large migration flow to the cities, contributing to fast urbanization, although urban areas do not provide many opportUnities for the poor and there is a massive expansion of slums and squatter settlements. This scenario may not be the most likely for the West Africa region, but it has internal coherence and is at least plausible.
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.
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Before 2025, the world's total population is expected to reach eight billion. Furthermore, it is predicted to reach over 10 billion in 2060, before slowing again as global birth rates are expected to decrease. Moreover, it is still unclear to what extent global warming will have an impact on population development. A high share of the population increase is expected to happen on the African continent.
Until 2100, the world's population is expected to be ageing. Whereas people over 60 years made up less than 13 percent of the world's population in 2024, this share is estimated to reach 28.8 percent in 2100. On the other hand, the share of people between zero and 14 years was expected to decrease by almost ten percentage points over the same period.
Projections estimate that the population in Italy will decrease in the following years. In January 2025, the Italian population added up to 59 million people, but in 2030 Italians will be 58 million individuals. Twenty years later, the population will be around 52 million people. Low birth rate and old population The birth rate in Italy has constantly dropped in the last years. In 2023, 6.4 children were born per 1,000 inhabitants, three babies less than in 2002. Nationwide, the highest number of births was registered in the southern regions, whereas central Italy had the lowest number of children born every 1,000 people. More specifically, the birth rate in the south stood at 7 infants, while in the center it was equal to 5.9 births. Consequently, the population in Italy has aged over the last decade. Between 2002 and 2024, the age distribution of the Italian population showed a growing share of people aged 65 years and older. As a result, the share of young people decreased. The European exception Similarly, the population in Europe is estimated to decrease in the coming years. In 2024, there were 740 million people living in Europe. In 2100, the figure is expected to drop to 586 million inhabitants. However, projections of the world population suggest that Europe might be the only continent experiencing a population decrease. For instance, the population in Africa could grow from 1.41 billion people in 2022 to 3.92 billion individuals in 2100, the fastest population growth worldwide.
This statistic shows Indonesia's total population from 2020 to 2024, with projections up until 2030. In 2024, the total population of Indonesia amounted to approximately 281.6 million inhabitants. Population of Indonesia Indonesia is a sovereign state archipelago in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia shares borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Malaysia. With a total population of more than 255 million inhabitants, Indonesia is one of the top five most populous countries in the world. Indonesia is a developing nation and a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as well as a member of the G-20 economies. It is slowly establishing itself amongst the top world economies. Gross domestic product of Indonesia showed an estimated growth rate of around 6.4 percent in 2014 in comparison to the previous year. Not only is the economy growing, but the population has rapidly grown also. It is estimated that by 2015, the total population will have grown by around 40 million people since 2003. However, despite the increase in the population growth, the fertility rate has slowly decreased over the past decade. Still, due to a better economic situation in the country and improved health and living conditions, life expectancy at birth has steadily increased over the last decade, a fact which also contributes to the total population growth in Indonesia.
This map is part of an interactive Story Map series about global change in the US.With the global human population expected to exceed 8 billion people by 2030, our species is already irreversibly changing the future of our planet. The US itself is expected to grow by 16.5% to over 360 million people, making it the third largest country in the world, behind India and China. This population increase isn’t distributed evenly - 81% of people will live in cities, urban, and suburban areas, which will continue to shape how resources are produced, transported, and consumed. The percent of foreign-born and second-generation immigrants in the US is also expected to rise in the future, contributing to an increasingly diverse population. Across the globe, immigration will likely account for significant population changes in the near future, as climate change fuels drought, crop failures, and political instability, creating climate refugees particularly among countries who do not have the infrastructure to mitigate or adapt to global change. Numbers aren’t the only thing that matter: people of different socioeconomic backgrounds use resources differently, both within and between countries.If the rest of the world used energy as intensely as the United States does, the world population would need more than 4 entire Earths to provide us with the resources to feed this rate consumption. This unfortunately means that even regions of the US that contribute less towards the problems of global change will still feel their impacts. To ensure a high quality of life for all citizens, we must address not only population growth, but also excess consumption of and reliance on resources across different regions. Geographic, population, and economic differences among regions can provide opportunities for success in the face of global change. Renewable energy sources have created entrepreneurial economic ventures, and communities have found environmental solutions through forming sustainable local food systems. Environmental justice movements are working now to ensure that all citizens have access to nature, recreational areas, and a healthy future for all.
According to latest figures, the Chinese population decreased by 1.39 million to around 1.408 billion people in 2024. After decades of rapid growth, China arrived at the turning point of its demographic development in 2022, which was earlier than expected. The annual population decrease is estimated to remain at moderate levels until around 2030 but to accelerate thereafter. Population development in China China had for a long time been the country with the largest population worldwide, but according to UN estimates, it has been overtaken by India in 2023. As the population in India is still growing, the country is very likely to remain being home of the largest population on earth in the near future. Due to several mechanisms put into place by the Chinese government as well as changing circumstances in the working and social environment of the Chinese people, population growth has subsided over the past decades, displaying an annual population growth rate of -0.1 percent in 2024. Nevertheless, compared to the world population in total, China held a share of about 17 percent of the overall global population in 2024. China's aging population In terms of demographic developments, the birth control efforts of the Chinese government had considerable effects on the demographic pyramid in China. Upon closer examination of the age distribution, a clear trend of an aging population becomes visible. In order to curb the negative effects of an aging population, the Chinese government abolished the one-child policy in 2015, which had been in effect since 1979, and introduced a three-child policy in May 2021. However, many Chinese parents nowadays are reluctant to have a second or third child, as is the case in most of the developed countries in the world. The number of births in China varied in the years following the abolishment of the one-child policy, but did not increase considerably. Among the reasons most prominent for parents not having more children are the rising living costs and costs for child care, growing work pressure, a growing trend towards self-realization and individualism, and changing social behaviors.
In 2023, it is estimated that the BRICS countries have a combined population of 3.25 billion people, which is over 40 percent of the world population. The majority of these people live in either China or India, which have a population of more than 1.4 billion people each, while the other three countries have a combined population of just under 420 million. Comparisons Although the BRICS countries are considered the five foremost emerging economies, they are all at various stages of the demographic transition and have different levels of population development. For all of modern history, China has had the world's largest population, but rapidly dropping fertility and birth rates in recent decades mean that its population growth has slowed. In contrast, India's population growth remains much higher, and it is expected to overtake China in the next few years to become the world's most populous country. The fastest growing population in the BRICS bloc, however, is that of South Africa, which is at the earliest stage of demographic development. Russia, is the only BRICS country whose population is currently in decline, and it has been experiencing a consistent natural decline for most of the past three decades. Growing populations = growing opportunities Between 2000 and 2026, the populations of the BRICS countries is expected to grow by 625 million people, and the majority of this will be in India and China. As the economies of these two countries grow, so too do living standards and disposable income; this has resulted in the world's two most populous countries emerging as two of the most profitable markets in the world. China, sometimes called the "world's factory" has seen a rapid growth in its middle class, increased potential of its low-tier market, and its manufacturing sector is now transitioning to the production of more technologically advanced and high-end goods to meet its domestic demand.
The statistic depicts the total population of Mexico from 2020 to 2024, with projections up until 2030. In 2020, Mexico's total population amounted to about 128.21 million people. Total population of Mexico The total population of Mexico was expected to reach 116.02 million people by the end of 2013. Despite being the source of one of the largest migration flows in the world, Mexico has managed to maintain around a 1.25 percent population growth rate for the last several years, roughly the same growth rate as India. Among the largest cities in Mexico, Mexico City is leading with more than 8.5 million inhabitants. A slowly declining fertility rate still holds above the replacement rate, and life expectancy is growing, expanding the population from both ends of the age spectrum. With the rising life expectancy, the median age of Mexican residents has also increased, and an increasing stream of immigrants from the financially-troubled Spain has also boosted population numbers. The majority of the Mexican population is Roman Catholic, owing to its colonial Spanish background. Spanish is the predominant language, with several regional and local dialects spoken, but a number of indigenous languages, such as Nahuatl, survive and are also spoken around Mexico. One worrying and relatively recent trend in Mexico is the growing share of the population becoming overweight or obese. It is not entirely clear what sort of effect the obesity epidemic is going to have on Mexican population numbers in the long run, but is starting to manifest itself not just in physical appearance, but in the increased rates of heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes. In fact, diabetes was one of the top causes of deaths for Mexicans in recent years.
The Global Grid of Probabilities of Urban Expansion to 2030 presents spatially explicit probabilistic forecasts of global urban land cover change from 2000 to 2030 at a 2.5 arc-minute resolution. For each grid cell that is non-urban in 2000, a Monte-Carlo model assigned a probability of becoming urban by the year 2030. The authors first extracted urban extent circa 2000 from the NASA MODIS Land Cover Type Product Version 5, which provides a conservative estimate of global urban land cover. The authors then used population densities from the Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, Version 1 (GRUMPv1) to create the population density driver map. They estimated the amount of new urban land in each United Nations region by 2030 in a Monte-Carlo fashion based on present empirical distribution of regional urban population densities and probability density functions of projected regional population and GDP values for 2030. To facilitate integration with other data products, CIESIN reprojected the data from Goode's Homolosine to Geographic WGS84 projection.
The spatial raster dataset depicts the distribution of population, expressed as the number of people per cell. Residential population estimates between 1975 and 2020 in 5 years intervals and projections to 2025 and 2030 derived from CIESIN GPWv4.11 were disaggregated from census or administrative units to grid cells, informed by the distribution, density, and classification of built-up as mapped in the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) global layer per corresponding epoch. This dataset is an update of the product released in 2022. Major improvements are the following: use of built-up volume maps (GHS-BUILT-V R2022A); use of more recent and detailed population estimates derived from GPWv4.11 integrating both UN World Population Prospects 2022 country population data and World Urbanisation Prospects 2018 data on Cities; revision of GPWv4.11 population growthrates by convergence to upper administrative level growthrates; systematic improvement of census coastlines; systematic revision of census units declared as unpopulated; integration of non-residential built-up volume information (GHS-BUILT-V_NRES R2023A); spatial resolution of 100m Mollweide (and 3 arcseconds in WGS84); projections to 2030.
According to the 2010 UN Global Demographic Outlook, the world’s population reached 7.1 billion as of 1 July 2012. Asia accounted for the majority of the world’s population (just over 60 % in 2012), with 4.25 billion inhabitants, while Africa was the second most populous continent, with 1.07 billion inhabitants, or 15.2 % of the world’s total. By comparison, the EU had 504 million inhabitants in 2012, just over 7 % of the world’s population. In 2012, the world’s most populous countries were China (19.2 % of the world’s population) and India (17.8 %), followed by the United States (4.5 %), Indonesia (3.5 %) and Brazil (2.8 %).
The table contains the demographic projections of the main European countries from 2020 to 2080.
The Eurostat table has been modified by economy-policy in order to obtain better visibility. Indeed, the number of inhabitants is expressed in “million inhabitants” and not in unit data.
In addition, demographic projections for China, India, Brazil and Russia were added for the years 2030, 2040 and 2050.
This statistic shows the total population of Greece from 2020 to 2024, with projections up until 2030. In 2024, the total population of Greece was around 10.4 million people. Population of Greece After a subtle year-over-year increase from 2004 to 2011, the population of Greece has experienced a slight drop from 2011 until 2014. Population growth decreased marginally in 2011 compared to the previous year, and once again in 2012 in comparison to 2011. Greek women also bore fewer children per woman on average in 2011, a slight decrease from 2010. But a lower fertility rate is not necessarily the only reason for the country’s total population decline, Greece’s recent economic downturn also plays a role. Due to poor decisions in regards to spending made by the government, Greece has suffered through an economic crisis since 2010, diminishing the incentive to live in the country. The unemployment rate dramatically surged since the crisis, reaching a decade high in 2013. Additionally, the country’s GDP has significantly dropped in the same time frame from 2008 to 2013, with the largest slump in GDP growth occurring in 2011. Despite a severe economic slump, Greece still managed to maintain a relatively high HDI value in 2012, preserving a spot among the top 30 countries worldwide. The HDI, or Human Development Index, is based on parameters such as literacy rate, education levels, GNI and life expectancy, which was one of the highest in the world in 2011.
The statistic shows the total population of Switzerland from 2020 to 2030, with projections up until 2030. In 2024, the total population of Switzerland amounted to around 8.96 million people. See the figures for the population of Italy for comparison. Economy of Switzerland Switzerland maintains one of the most stable economies and has been revered as the most secure banking and investment safe haven in the world. The country is viewed as not only one of the most economically advanced countries, but also one of the most politically respected countries, primarily due to having exceptionally good relations with the majority of countries around the world. Despite being affected by recessions in the early and late 2000s, Switzerland sustained a sufficient economy through competent leadership, most notably when considering the amount of money the government spent in comparison to the amount of revenues earned from goods and services. Many countries around the world suffered economically due to overspending, which often indirectly led to higher unemployment rates. However, Switzerland sustained a relatively balanced and low unemployment rate through the years through adequate government spending as well as a high percentage of skilled workers occupying the country’s workforce. A strong economy, beautiful nature and overall distinctive cultures have made Switzerland one of the most visited tourist countries in the world. Additionally, Switzerland is also a relatively popular country to visit for business meetings due to its centralized location and well renowned reputation.
The statistic shows the total population of Australia from 1980 to 2023, with projections up until 2030. In 2023, Australia had a total population of about 26.95 million people. Population of Australia Australia is among the ten largest countries in the world, in terms of area size, although its total population is low in relation to this. Much of Australia’s interior remains uninhabited, as the majority of Australians live in coastal metropolises and cities. Most of the population is of European descent (predominantly British), although there is a growing share of the population with Asian heritage; only a small percentage belongs to the indigenous Aboriginal population. Australia's year-on-year population growth is fairly high compared to most other economically and demographically advanced nations, due to comparatively high rates of natural increase and immigration. Living standards Standard of living is fairly high in Australia, which can be seen when looking at the Human Development Index, which ranks countries by their level of human development and living standards, such as their unemployment rate, literacy rate, or life expectancy at birth. Life expectancy of Australia’s population is quite high in international comparison, for example, Australia is also among the leading countries when it comes to this key factor. Economically speaking, Australia is also among the leading nations, with a steadily rising employment rate, an increasing gross domestic product (GDP) with a steady growth rate, and a relatively stable share in the global GDP.
http://reference.data.gov.uk/id/open-government-licencehttp://reference.data.gov.uk/id/open-government-licence
Population of Urban Agglomerations with 300,000 Inhabitants or more in 2014, by city, 1950-2030 (thousands). Data for 1,692 cities contained in the Excel file.
Note: Each country has its own definition of what is 'urban' and therefore use exercise caution when comparing cities in different countries.
Data available from the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2014). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision, CD-ROM Edition.
Further detail of population estimates, land area, and population density for world urban areas with over 500,000 people (924 areas) is available with Demographia's World Urban Areas report (2014). Much of this data is based on the UN urban agglomerations, though a range of other sources are also used.
In 2024, Generation Z represented 24.6 percent of the global population, making them the largest generation group in the world, according to the source. In 2030, Millennials were forecast to represent 21.6 percent of the population worldwide.