In a report released on Monday, the UN predicted that the world’s population will surpass eight billion on November 15 and that India will overtake China as the world’s most populous nation in 2023.
The global population milestone “is a moment to reflect on where we still fall short of our commitments to one another,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said without providing any details, and “is a reminder of our shared responsibility to care for our planet.”
He continued, “This is an opportunity to celebrate our diversity, acknowledge our shared humanity, and marvel at advances in health care that have dramatically lowered maternal and child mortality rates.”
The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs predicted that global population growth is currently occurring at its slowest rate since 1950.
The population should reach 8.5 billion in 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050 before reaching a peak of roughly 10.4 billion in the 2080s and staying there until 2100.
While several developing nations are seeing a net decline in birth rates, the report predicted that eight countries will account for more than half of the increase in global population over the next few decades.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Tanzania, according to the report, are among them.
