In the past year, the world’s population has increased by just 66 million people. That was 16 million fewer than the year before. The growth rate last year was 0.8 percent, falling below 1 percent a year for the first time since the United Nations began recording it in 1950.
In 2020 it was still 1.09 percent. Growth has thus more than halved since the late 1960s. Between 1965 and 1970, annual growth peaked at more than 2 percent.
However, the German Foundation for World Population (DSW), which published the latest population statistics from the UN (“World Population Prospects”) on the occasion of today’s World Population Day, does not want to speak of a reversal of the trend. Rather, the decline can be explained by the corona pandemic, which is also the reason why life expectancy fell to 71 years worldwide in 2021. In 2019 it was still 72.8 years.
The world population is currently growing by 180,000 people per day, which is 2.1 per second. According to the latest calculations, eight billion people will be living on earth on November 15, currently there are around 7,977,000,000. According to UN calculations, population growth will reach its peak in a good 60 years with around 10.4 billion people on earth. According to the DSW, the United Nations had previously assumed a maximum of 10.9 billion people around the year 2100.
The average number of children per woman is also falling
Most people live in Asia. If the world were a village with 100 people, 60 would be from Asia, 17 from Africa, nine from Europe, eight from Latin America, five from North America and one person from Oceania. By 2050, about one inhabitant would be added every year, so that 124 people lived in the village: 67 from Asia, 32 from Africa, ten from Latin America, nine from Europe, five from North America, one person from Oceania.
As the current figures from the UN show, the average number of children per woman continues to fall – from 2.4 in 2019 to 2.3 last year. In the 1960s, women had more than five children on average. The birth rate is similarly high in only a few regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa (4.6).
“A lack of sexual education and poor access to contraceptives are the reasons why many girls become pregnant in their teens,” says DSW Deputy Managing Director Angela Bähr. Last year, one in ten children (13.3 million) was born to a mother under the age of 20, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean. The young mothers take great health risks: Hundreds of girls die every day from heavy bleeding, infections, birth complications or unsafe abortions. According to the DSW, this is mainly due to a lack of access to contraceptive methods and a lack of equality. Pregnancy is still the leading cause of death for fifteen to nineteen year olds.
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