We explain what the world population is and its main characteristics. In addition, we explain its distribution in the world, its growth and its main problems.
The trend shows that the number of people living on the planet is increasing over the years.
The world population
The world population is the number of people living on the planet at a given time.This amount is the result of the difference between births and deaths: if more people are born than die, the population increases, and if the opposite happens, the population decreases.
Throughout history, the world’s population had periods of growth and periods of depopulationbut the general trend shows that the number of people living on the planet increases over the years.
Over the past 200 years the world’s population has undergone profound changes: its growth accelerated, he average age increased (the population “aged”) and the population of the cities increased.
Characteristics of the world population
- The current population is 8 billion inhabitants.
- Some of its main indicators are the birth rate, the mortality rate, life expectancy and the urbanization rate.
- It is distributed unevenly across the planet.
- It has had sustained growth for many centuries, and this growth has accelerated especially during the last century.
- Over the past 200 years, the world’s population has grown and aged (i.e. the average age has increased). In addition, the number of people living in cities has grown, and thanks to globalization, migration flows between countries have increased.
Population growth over the past 200 years
In the year 0, there were approximately 200 million people living in the world.It took 1,000 years for the population to double and reach 400 million, and by 1800 there were already more than 1 billion people living on the planet.
From that point on, world population growth accelerated: in 1900 the population reached 1.5 billion and in 2000 it exceeded 6 billion. In November 2022, the world’s population exceeded 8 billion people.
Although the world’s population is a number that continues to rise, its acceleration has slowed, and specialists indicate that throughout the 21st century The number of inhabitants on the planet will grow at an increasingly slower paceIt is estimated that the 9 billion mark will be reached in 2040 and that only by the end of the century will the population exceed 10 billion inhabitants.
YearPopulation0200 million1000400 million1500500 million18001000 million19302000 million19603000 million19754000 million19905000 million20006000 million20117000 million20238000 million
The main demographic indicators
The main demographic indicators used to analyse and study the growth, distribution and quality of life of the world’s population are:
- Birth rate. It measures the number of births in a year per 1,000 inhabitants. Niger and Somalia, with 45 ‰ and 42 ‰ respectively, have the highest birth rates in the world.
- Mortality rateIt measures the number of deaths per 1,000 inhabitants in one year. Bulgaria and Ukraine, with 18 and 17, are the countries with the highest mortality rate in the world.
- Infant mortality rateIt measures the number of children who die before reaching their first birthday per 1,000 live births. Afghanistan, with 104, has the highest infant mortality rate on the planet: this figure means that out of 1,000 children born in that country, 104 die before reaching their first birthday.
- Life expectancy. It is the average number of years a person is expected to live. Japan with 86.2 years and Switzerland with 84.5 have the highest life expectancy on the planet.
- Fertility rate. It measures the average number of children born. Niger, with 6.91 children per woman, and Angola, with 5.9, have the highest fertility rates on the planet.
- Vegetative growth rateIt is the difference between births and deaths during a year.
- Migratory balanceIt is the difference between people who come to live in a place (immigrants) and those who leave (emigrants).
- Population growth rateIt is the sum of the vegetative growth rate and the migratory balance.
- Population density. It is the number of people living in a given area. It is measured in inhabitants per square kilometer. The most densely populated places in the world can reach 15,000 inhabitants per square kilometer, while the world’s great deserts have a population density of less than 0.1 inhabitants per square kilometer.
- Urbanization rate. It is the percentage of the population that lives in cities.
The aging of the world’s population
In the last decades The world’s population has experienced a progressive aging processA demographic indicator used to measure ageing is the percentage of people in the world who are over 65 years old. In 1960, those over 65 years old represented 6% of the world’s population, while today that figure is 10%.
Another indicator used to measure the aging of the world’s population is life expectancy. This indicator has also been progressively increasing in recent decades: while in 1960 the global life expectancy was 51 years, it is currently 71 years.
The maximum value was reached in 2019, at 73 years, but as a consequence of the COVID 19 pandemic, which affected the world population from 2020, Life expectancy has dropped to 71 in the last three years.
The progressive ageing of the world’s population poses a series of challenges and problems that affect the economic, social, health and political levels.
- Pressure on health systemsAs the population ages, the demand for health services increases. This can strain hospitals, clinics and health centres, and affect the availability of medical and professional resources to care for increasing numbers of people.
- Increase in the number of retireesThe proportion of economically inactive people is increasing, and this may represent a financing problem for States that must support the payment of pensions to an ever-increasing number of people.
- Shortage of labor and skills. A decline in the working-age population may result in labor and skills shortages in certain industries, professions, and trades.
The spatial distribution of the world population
The world’s population is unevenly distributed over the Earth’s surface. While in some places the population density is very high and the largest cities can exceed 10 million inhabitants, in other regions of the planet the concentration is very low, and so-called “demographic gaps” are formed. In these demographic gaps the population density is less than 1 inhabitant per square kilometer.
By continents, the world population is distributed as follows:
ContinentTotal population% of totalAsia4,561,000,000 inhabitants57%Africa1,320,000,000 inhabitants16.5%America1,000,000,000 inhabitants12.5%Europe746,000,000 inhabitants9.2%Oceania42,000,000 inhabitants0.5%Antarctica4,000 inhabitants (non-permanent)-
There are often discrepancies between population growth estimates and census data. Estimates indicate that the world population in 2023 will be 8 billion inhabitants: this figure is established on the basis of demographic models and projections that allow the growth of the number of inhabitants on the planet to be calculated.
Official data, on the other hand, come from censuses carried out by each country. Some of these data may be out of date because countries generally carry out censuses every ten years. For this reason, there are differences between the data that come from the censuses and the estimates.
The places on the planet where there is the highest concentration of population are the big cities. Among them are:
- Tokyo (Japan), with 37 million inhabitants.
- New Delhi (India), with 32 million.
- Shanghai (China), with 23 million.
In contrast, the largest demographic gaps on the planet are found in large deserts such as the Sahara or Tibet, in some parts of the Amazon rainforest, near the Arctic Ocean and in Antarctica.
Urbanization of the world’s population
Urbanization is a demographic phenomenon that has characterized the world’s population during the development of the 20th century and continues to be a trend in the 21st century. Throughout this period, There has been a significant increase in the proportion of the population living in urban areas worldwide.
At the beginning of the century, the majority of the world’s population lived in rural areas.By 1950, the proportion of the urban population had increased and accounted for 30% of the total. As the century progressed, this trend became more pronounced and by 2000 more than half of the global population resided in urban environments.
According to recent estimates, currently, Around 55% of the world’s population is urbanand this figure is expected to continue to increase in the coming decades.
Several causes contribute to this urbanization process. Some of them are:
- The process of industrializationDuring the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution attracted people to cities in search of employment in factories and industry. This trend continued throughout the 20th century and deepened over the years.
- Improvements in agricultural technologyThe advance of technology caused agricultural machinery to replace human labor, which led to the migration of the unemployed population from the countryside to the cities.
- The greatest offer and quality of servicesThe greater variety of health, education, transportation and communications services offered by cities has also attracted people to live in urban environments in recent decades.
- Employment opportunitiesThe possibility of finding work in shops, service companies and government agencies is also an important attraction for living in cities.
Globalization and international migrations
The globalization caused an increasing international mobility of labour, that is, an increase in migration between countries. In general, those who move are people of working age, who move from middle- or low-income countries to more developed ones.
For several decades now, Europe and the United States have become destinations for significant demographic flows from different parts of the world. However, throughout the 20th century this was not always the case.
Between 1914, when the First World War began…