The United Nations celebrated on November 15, 2022 the milestone in human demography: we are now 8 billion humans living officially on planet earth.

On 15 November 2022, the world’s population is projected to reach 8 billion people, a milestone in human development. 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.

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. (UN)

Chinese and Indians  lead

According to World Population China (1,41 bn) and India (1,4 billion)  are currently the most populous countries. It is expected that India overtakes China by 52 millions in 2023  as there are signs of growth in India whilst observations show that the birth growth in China is decreasing.

Between 2080-2100, the world population will be approximately 10.4 billion people. After this time, the population growth rate is expected to turn negative, resulting in global population decline.