World Population Hits 8 Billion Mark; India 'On Course' to Pip China as Most Populous in 2023

The global human population crossed 8 billion today, according to the United Nations. It has doubled from 4 billion in a span of 48 years. The global population was 4 billion in 1974.

The eighth billion child was born in some part of the world on Tuesday.

Experts say that the next doubling will never happen despite the global population growing for the next few decades. It will happen due to fewer deaths and due to increase in life expectancy. Due to the rise in population, the global median age also increases to 30.5 years.

“This unprecedented growth is due to the gradual increase in human lifespan owing to improvements in public health, nutrition, personal hygiene and medicine. It is also the result of high and persistent levels of fertility in some countries,” the UN said on its Day of 8 billion website.

“While it took the global population 12 years to grow from 7 to 8 billion, it will take approximately 15 years—until 2037— for it to reach 9 billion, a sign that the overall growth rate of the global population is slowing,” the UN further added.

The global media age divides the global population into two parts of equal numbers.

The global median age in 1974 was 20.6 years which means half the population was younger than 22 years while the other half was older than 22 years.

The population explosion will also cease at some point in this century and the African continent will see a rise in population as Asia will no longer remain the population growth engine of the world.

The global population will cross 10 billion mark before 2100 but this will not go on forever, within this century. It took 12 years for the global population to climb from 7 billion to 8 billion and it will take us more 15 years to reach 9 billion, the UN projects.

According to WorldOMeters.org, the current human population at the time of writing this report was 7,999,979,274 and increasing.

The UN projects that current life expectancy will rise to 77.2 years by 2050. The organisation said in 2019 that global life expectancy was 72.8 years, registering a rise of nine years from 1990 when life expectancy was 63 years.

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