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.

Whereas the population is expected to decrease somewhat until 2100 in Asia, Europe, and South America, it is predicted to grow significantly in Africa. While there were 1.55 billion inhabitants on the continent at the beginning of 2025, the number of inhabitants is expected to reach 3.81 billion by 2100. In total, the global population is expected to reach nearly 10.18 billion by 2100. Worldwide population In the United States, the total population is expected to steadily increase over the next couple of years. In 2024, Asia held over half of the global population and is expected to have the highest number of people living in urban areas in 2050. Asia is home to the two most populous countries, India and China, both with a population of over one billion people. However, the small country of Monaco had the highest population density worldwide in 2024. Effects of overpopulation Alongside the growing worldwide population, there are negative effects of overpopulation. The increasing population puts a higher pressure on existing resources and contributes to pollution. As the population grows, the demand for food grows, which requires more water, which in turn takes away from the freshwater available. Concurrently, food needs to be transported through different mechanisms, which contributes to air pollution. Not every resource is renewable, meaning the world is using up limited resources that will eventually run out. Furthermore, more species will become extinct which harms the ecosystem and food chain. Overpopulation was considered to be one of the most important environmental issues worldwide in 2020.

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.

Population growth (annual %) in World was reported at 0.9512 % in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. World - Population growth (annual %) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on September of 2025.

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.

Explore population projections for China on this dataset webpage. Get valuable insights into the future demographic trends of one of the world's most populous countries.

Population, China, projections ChinaFollow data.kapsarc.org for timely data to advance energy economics research..Total population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship. The values shown are midyear estimatesSource: (1) United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects: 2019 Revision. (2) Census reports and other statistical publications from national statistical offices, (3) Eurostat: Demographic Statistics, (4) United Nations Statistical Division. Population and Vital Statistics Reprot (various years), (5) U.S. Census Bureau: International Database, and (6) Secretariat of the Pacific Community: Statistics and Demography Programme.

The Gridded Population of the World, Version 3 (GPWv3): Population Density Grid, Future EstimatesFuture Estimates consists of estimates of human population for the years 2005, 2010, and 2015 by 2.5 arc-minute grid cells. A proportional allocation gridding algorithm, utilizing more than 300,000 national and sub-national administrative Units, is used to assign population values to grid cells. The future estimate population values are extrapolated based on a combination of subnational growth rates from census dates and national growth rates from United Nations statistics. All of the grids have been adjusted to match United Nations national level population estimates. The population density grids are derived by dividing the population count grids by the land area grid and represent persons per square kilometer. The grids are available in various GIS-compatible data formats and geographic extents (global, continent [Antarctica not included], and country levels). GPWv3 is produced by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) in collaboration with Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT).

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.

Population, female (% of total population) in World was reported at 49.72 % in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. World - Population, female (% of total) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on August of 2025.

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.

This is a repository of global and regional human population data collected from: the databases of scenarios assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Sixth Assessment Report, Special Report on 1.5 C; Fifth Assessment Report), multi-national databases of population projections (World Bank, International Database, United Nation population projections), and other very long-term population projections (Resources for the Future). More specifically, it contains: - in other_pop_data folder files from World Bank, the International Database from the US Census, and from IHME - in the SSP folder, the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways, downloaded from IIASA - in the UN folder, the demographic projections from UN - IAMstat.xlsx, an overview file of the metadata accompanying the scenarios present in the IPCC databases - RFF.csv, an overview file containing the population projections obtained by Resources For the Future '- the remaining .csv files with names AR6#, AR5#, IAMC15# contain the IPCC scenarios assessed by the IPCC for preparing the IPCC assessment reports. They can be downloaded from AR5, SR 1.5, and AR6 This data should be used downloaded for use together with the package downloadable here.

Data contains 2022 world population data publised by the UN DESA for six most populous countries of the world. File also contains the analysis of decomposition of demographic indicators on population growth.

This aggregate data collection is an extract of the International Data Base (IDB), a computerized central repository of demographic, economic, and social data for all countries of the world. Data available in this collection include total midyear population estimates and projections (1950-1985), percent urban population, estimates and projections of crude birth rate, crude death rate, net migration rate, rate of natural increase, and annual growth rate, infant mortality rate and life expectancy at birth by sex, percent literate by sex, and percent of the labor force in agriculture.

The Country-Level Population and Downscaled Projections Based on Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) A1, B1, and A2 Scenarios, 1990-2100, were adopted in 2000 from population projections realized at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in 1996. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) SRES A1 and B1 scenarios both used the same IIASA "rapid" fertility transition projection, which assumes low fertility and low mortality rates. The SRES A2 scenario used a corresponding IIASA "slow" fertility transition projection (high fertility and high mortality rates). Both IIASA low and high projections are performed for 13 world regions including North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, China and Centrally Planned Asia, Pacific Asia, Pacific OECD, Central Asia, Middle East, South Asia, Eastern Europe, European part of the former Soviet Union, Western Europe, Latin America, and North America. This data set is produced and distributed by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).

The Gridded Population of the World, Version 3 (GPWv3): Population Density Grid, Future EstimatesFuture Estimates consists of estimates of human population for the years 2005, 2010, and 2015 by 2.5 arc-minute grid cells. A proportional allocation gridding algorithm, utilizing more than 300,000 national and sub-national administrative Units, is used to assign population values to grid cells. The future estimate population values are extrapolated based on a combination of subnational growth rates from census dates and national growth rates from United Nations statistics. All of the grids have been adjusted to match United Nations national level population estimates. The population density grids are derived by dividing the population count grids by the land area grid and represent persons per square kilometer. The grids are available in various GIS-compatible data formats and geographic extents (global, continent [Antarctica not included], and country levels). GPWv3 is produced by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) in collaboration with Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT).

This layer shares SEDAC's population projections for U.S. counties for 2020-2100 in increments of 5 years, for each of five population projection scenarios known as Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). This layer supports mapping, data visualizations, analysis and data exports.Before using this layer, read:The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways and their energy, land use, and greenhouse gas emissions implications: An overview by Keywan Riahi, Detlef P. van Vuuren, Elmar Kriegler, Jae Edmonds, Brian C. O’Neill, Shinichiro Fujimori, Nico Bauer, Katherine Calvin, Rob Dellink, Oliver Fricko, Wolfgang Lutz, Alexander Popp, Jesus Crespo Cuaresma, Samir KC, Marian Leimbach, Leiwen Jiang, Tom Kram, Shilpa Rao, Johannes Emmerling, Kristie Ebi, Tomoko Hasegawa, Petr Havlik, Florian Humpenöder, Lara Aleluia Da Silva, Steve Smith, Elke Stehfest, Valentina Bosetti, Jiyong Eom, David Gernaat, Toshihiko Masui, Joeri Rogelj, Jessica Strefler, Laurent Drouet, Volker Krey, Gunnar Luderer, Mathijs Harmsen, Kiyoshi Takahashi, Lavinia Baumstark, Jonathan C. Doelman, Mikiko Kainuma, Zbigniew Klimont, Giacomo Marangoni, Hermann Lotze-Campen, Michael Obersteiner, Andrzej Tabeau, Massimo Tavoni. Global Environmental Change, Volume 42, 2017, Pages 153-168, ISSN 0959-3780, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.05.009.From the 2017 paper: "The SSPs are part of a new scenario framework, established by the climate change research community in order to facilitate the integrated analysis of future climate impacts, vulnerabilities, adaptation, and mitigation. The pathways were developed over the last years as a joint community effort and describe plausible major global developments that together would lead in the future to different challenges for mitigation and adaptation to climate change. The SSPs are based on five narratives describing alternative socio-economic developments, including sustainable development, regional rivalry, inequality, fossil-fueled development, and middle-of-the-road development. The long-term demographic and economic projections of the SSPs depict a wide uncertainty range consistent with the scenario literature."According to SEDAC, the purpose of this data is:"To provide subnational (county) population projection scenarios for the United States essential for understanding long-term demographic changes, planning for the future, and decision-making in a variety of applications."According to Francesco Bassetti of Foresight, "The SSP’s baseline worlds are useful because they allow us to see how different socioeconomic factors impact climate change. They include: a world of sustainability-focused growth and equality (SSP1); a “middle of the road” world where trends broadly follow their historical patterns (SSP2); a fragmented world of “resurgent nationalism” (SSP3); a world of ever-increasing inequality (SSP4);a world of rapid and unconstrained growth in economic output and energy use (SSP5).There are seven sublayers, each with county boundaries and an identical set of attribute fields containing projections for these seven groupings across the five SSPs and nine decades.Total PopulationBlack Non-Hispanic PopulationWhite Non-Hispanic PopulationOther Non-Hispanic PopulationHispanic PopulationMale PopulationFemale PopulationMethodology: Documentation for the Georeferenced U.S. County-Level Population Projections, Total and by Sex, Race and Age, Based on the SSPs, v1 (2020 – 2100)Data currency: This layer was created from a shapefile downloaded April 18, 2023 from SEDAC's Georeferenced U.S. County-Level Population Projections, Total and by Sex, Race and Age, Based on the SSPs, v1 (2020 – 2100)Enhancements found in this layer: Every field was given a field alias and field description created from SEDAC's Data Dictionary downloaded April 18, 2023. Citation: Hauer, M., and Center for International Earth Science Information Network - CIESIN - Columbia University. 2021. Georeferenced U.S. County-Level Population Projections, Total and by Sex, Race and Age, Based on the SSPs, 2020-2100. Palisades, New York: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). https://doi.org/10.7927/dv72-s254. Accessed 18 April 2023.Hauer, M. E. 2019. Population Projections for U.S. Counties by Age, Sex, and Race Controlled to Shared Socioeconomic Pathway. Scientific Data 6: 190005. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2019.5.Distribution Liability: CIESIN follows procedures designed to ensure that data disseminated by CIESIN are of reasonable quality. If, despite these procedures, users encounter apparent errors or misstatements in the data, they should contact SEDAC User Services at +1 845-465-8920 or via email at ciesin.info@ciesin.columbia.edu. Neither CIESIN nor NASA verifies or guarantees the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of any data provided. CIESIN provides this data without warranty of any kind whatsoever, either expressed or implied. CIESIN shall not be liable for incidental, consequential, or special damages arising out of the use of any data provided by CIESIN.

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 United Nations Population Division is a part of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). Its primary mission is to provide timely and accurate demographic information and analysis to assist countries in making informed policy decisions related to population and development. The division produces a wide range of demographic data, reports, and publications, and it serves as a key source of information on global population trends.

Some of the main functions and activities of the United Nations Population Division include:

1. Data Collection and Analysis: The division collects and compiles data on population, fertility, mortality, migration, and other demographic variables from member states and other international sources. It analyzes this data to track global demographic trends and provides population estimates and projections.

2. World Population Prospects: The division publishes the "World Population Prospects," which is a comprehensive set of demographic data and projections for countries around the world. This report is regularly updated and is widely used by governments, researchers, and policymakers.

3. Demographic Research: The division conducts research on a wide range of demographic issues, including aging populations, urbanization, family planning, and more. This research helps to inform policies and programs aimed at addressing demographic challenges.

4. Technical Assistance: The division provides technical assistance to countries in areas related to population and development, including capacity building, data collection, and analysis.

5. Reports and Publications: The division produces a variety of reports, publications, and working papers on demographic topics. These resources are made available to the public and serve as valuable references for researchers and policymakers.

6. Population Conferences: The United Nations Population Division plays a role in organizing and supporting international conferences and events related to population and development issues. These conferences provide a platform for countries to discuss and coordinate actions to address demographic challenges.

Overall, the United Nations Population Division plays a crucial role in monitoring and understanding global demographic trends and supporting countries in their efforts to develop policies and programs that promote sustainable development and address population-related challenges.

Population, male in World was reported at 4093749402 Persons in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. World - Population, male - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on September of 2025.

Gridded Population of the World, Version 3 (GPWv3) Future Estimates consists of estimates of human population for the years 2005, 2010, and 2015 by 2.5 arc-minute grid cells and associated datasets dated circa 2000. A proportional allocation gridding algorithm, utilizing more than 300,000 national and sub-national administrative units, is used to assign population values to grid cells. The population counts that the grids are derived from are extrapolated based on a combination of subnational growth rates from census dates and national growth rates from United Nations statistics. All of the grids have been adjusted to match United Nations national level population estimates. The population count grids contain estimates of the number of persons per grid cell. The grids are available in various GIS-compatible data formats and geographic extents (global, continent [Antarctica not included], and country levels). GPWv3 is produced by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) in collaboration with Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT).