In mid-November, the United Nations announced that the world's population had reached 8 billion. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs released a detailed report on the current state of the planet's population census, projections of growth and population contraction for different countries and continents in the world until 2050. The report, whose summary falls on more than 50 pages, foresees significant demographic changes in the world's demographics in the next 30 years.
The United Nations estimate of the world's current population, which indicates more than 8 billion people, confirms a significant increase in population in a short period of time. In 1974, the world ' that is, 1999, which means that the number of human beings has increased by half in only a quarter of a century.
Between 1999 and 2022, during 23 years, the number reached 8 billion, up 2 billion in a period roughly equal to the previous increase. The increase in the last 10 years is estimated at 1 billion people, and thus it is expected to increase people to nearly 10 billion by 2050.
Changes in population distribution
The report indicates that the projected increase will not be equal across continents and countries, i.e. will not necessarily be commensurate with each region's current population.
The biggest clear change is the expected change in China's and India's census; The world's most populous nation. China leads the world by an estimated 1.42 billion people, an increase of nearly 300 million since 1999, followed by India's estimated 1.41 billion people, an increase of more than 550 million over the same period.
India ' China's census is tending to shrink.
The report therefore predicts that by 2050 India will have the world's highest population with an estimated 1.66 billion people, while China falls to second place with an estimated 1.37 billion people, less than its current census, despite China's abolition of the one-child policy and its encouragement for families to have more children.
Concentrated increases in Africa and Asia
As is evident, a large number of the world's population inhabits only two States; India and China, with a combined population of nearly 2.83 billion, the United States is third, then Bangladesh, Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia and then Mexico with a total population of up to 4.55 billion, more than half of the planet's population concentrated in the world's top 10 countries.
However, the report expects that the arrangement will change; Some of these countries will be shrinking, such as Russia, or steadiness - or a slight increase - such as Brazil, while a new country will enter the list of the 10 most-numbered countries, namely Ethiopia.
The report considers that more than half of the world's projected increase to 2050 will be from only 8 countries, with a total of more than 1 billion people: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania.
Given the continent's population distribution, Europe and North America, as well as Australia and New Zealand, will almost maintain their numbers or increase slightly, while the increase in Africa and Asia will be concentrated in North, West and Central Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and Central, East and Southern Asia.
Basic challenges associated with population growth
Experts believe that population growth will represent an increasing strain on the planet's resources, especially in the areas of energy and food. In a report by Dalhousie University of Canada on the effects of projected population growth, researchers in the university's Department of Economics explained that population increase was not necessarily a bad thing.
The lecturer at the department, Dr. Meritika Shamsuddin, noted that population growth was good, as it meant an increase in society's workforce and an increase in consumers, which meant an increase in productivity. On the other side, however, they may cause the depletion of non-renewable energy and food resources if the population increases too quickly.
Associate Professor of the Department of International Growth Studies, Dr. Robert Harish, considers that one of the reasons for the population increase is the development of health-care systems, which has resulted in small numbers of neonatal deaths, and an increase in average ages. However, it points to the wide disparity in average incomes and ages between different States, which means that some regions will suffer as a result of this increase.
In the area of food, researchers at Singapore's Centre for Food and Biotechnology Creativity are alerting to a potential shortage of food resources that may exacerbate the suffering of areas with a food security problem.
The coronavirus pandemic has led to an increase in people with adequate food security problems, estimated at 150 million, compared to the year before the pandemic.
The researchers therefore propose to accelerate the adoption of new food resources; such as: vertical and practical agriculture, production of proteins from alternative sources; Such as: microorganisms.
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