The world today (cont.)
Global Population Growth
The past 200 years have seen unprecedented population growth. In the earliest part of the 19th century, the world population reached one billion for the first time. Since then the number of people on earth has increased dramatically, and in the second half of 2011 the 7 billionth person was born. Global population continues to grow at 1.1% per annum. This means that the global population would reach 14 billion in 2075 if this remains unchanged.
Click on the dates outside the chart to show line evolution.
What do you think will happen to global population over the next century? Will it continue to grow, level off, or start to decline? Why do you think this?
Unfortunately this is a bit of a trick question. The future of global population growth is dependent on future trends in fertility and mortality. Although predictions can be made based on previous and current patterns, we cannot say yet what will happen. The following page shows future population projections based on the assumption of a gradually increasing life expectancy and different fertility scenarios.