What was the extent of global population growth in the year 2023?
 

In a recent report by the U.S. Census Bureau, it has been revealed that the global population grew by a staggering 75 million in the past year, with the number set to surpass 8 billion on New Year's Day. This growth rate of 0.95% marks a significant increase in population numbers. Nigeria, a country with a high birth rate, currently ranks sixth among the most populous countries in the world with a population of 230,842,743. By January 1, 2024, the global population is projected to reach 8,019,876,189, an increase of 75,162,541 compared to January 1, 2023. The planet's population reached 8 billion on November 15, 2022.

At the start of 2024, the world is projected to witness an average of 4.3 births and two deaths every second, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The United States, with a population of 335.8 million on New Year's Day, added 1.7 million people in 2023, resulting in a growth rate of 0.53%, slightly higher than the global average of 0.95%. However, the 2020s are predicted to be the decade with the slowest growth since the Great Depression, with a rate of 7.3%. If this trend continues until the end of the decade, it could be the slowest-growing decade in U.S. History, with less than 4% growth, as stated by William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution.

 

From 2020 to 2050, eight countries are expected to account for approximately half of the estimated global population growth: India, Nigeria, Congo, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Egypt, and Indonesia. India surpassed China's population in 2022, with figures of 1,425,775,850 and 1,411,750,000 respectively.

 

The UN predicts that by 2080, the global population will reach 10.4 billion people. The increasing life expectancy at birth has led to a substantial decrease in infant mortality in recent decades; it rose from 48 years in 1950-1955 to 67 years in 2000-2005 and is projected to continue rising to 77 years in 2045-2050 and 83 years in 2095-2100.

 

Despite a decrease in birth rates and an increase in death rates in the United States, immigration will continue to add people to the population. At the beginning of 2024, there will be one birth every nine seconds and one death every nine and a half seconds; however, net international migration is expected to add one person to the U.S. Population every 28.3 seconds.

 

The global population growth has slowed since the 1960s; it took twelve and a half years for the global population to increase from seven billion to eight billion people. The Census Bureau predicts that it will take fourteen and one year for it to increase from eight billion to nine billion (2036) and sixteen and four years to increase from nine billion to ten billion people (around 2052).