Demographics

[New] Changing demographics - The world's population continues to grow with today's population of approximately 7.6 billion expected to reach 8.6 billion by 2030, with Australia's population reaching approximately 30 million by then.
[New] Up to 80% of the global population is expected to live in urban areas by 2050, presenting sustainability strategists with a huge challenge.
[New] Due to lower net overseas migration to Australia, annual population growth is assumed to slow to just 0.6% in 2020-21, the lowest rate since 1916-17.
[New] The population of Japan is predicted to shrink from around 128 million in 2017 to 60 million in 2100, Thailand will see a decline from 71 to 35 million, and South Korea from 53 to 27 million.
[New] The Italian population is expected to more than halve, from 61 million in 2017 to 28 million by the end of the century.
[New] China's population is expected to shrink to 732 million by 2100, while Nigeria's is set to explode, more than tripling from its current 206 million to 791 million by 2100.
[New] AMP estimates that the fall in immigration would lower Australian population growth to 0.4%: Deloitte Access Economics is slightly less pessimistic and forecasts population growth of 0.8% in 2020, followed by 0.6% in 2021 before a recovery to 1.1% growth in 2022.
[New] Nigeria is forecast to have continued population growth through 2100 and was expected to be the second most populous country by then.
China's population is projected to peak in four years' time at 1.43 billion and halve to 732 million by 2100.
Japan's population is forecast to fall to 117.6 million in 2034 implying an annual decline of 0.4%, making it one of the fastest shrinking population in the world.
India is the world's second most populous country with a population of 1,373.6 million in 2019 and is projected soon to become the largest, forecast to overtake China in 2027 on UN figures and earlier still on many others.
The total population of people in China India, and Brazil having ages above 60 years are expected to rise to 437 million, 324 million, and 58 million respectively, by 2050.
Aside from North Africa, the Middle East is the only other region predicted to have a larger population in 2100, growing from an estimated 600 million in 2017 to 978 million.
Sub-Saharan Africa's population is expected to increase from 1.1 billion to 1.4 billion by 2030, 2.1 billion by 2050, and about 3.8 billion by the end of the century.
Iran is expected to see its population significantly decline by the end of the century.
India is expected to add nearly 273 million people in the next three decades and surpass China's population within the next seven years.
With the current global population at 7.8 billion and estimated to touch nine billion by 2050, the massive surge in population is identified to be the causal factor of developmental concerns in several countries.
The population of sub-Saharan Africa is expected to triple in size to reach more than three billion people by 2100.
With a population of more than 200 million people - and growing fast-Pakistan' s population is expected to reach 403 million by 2050.
Although numbers of working-age adults in India are projected to fall from 762 million in 2020 to around 578 million in 2100, it is expected to be one of the few - if only - major power in Asia to protect its working-age population over the century.
An additional 34 countries are expected to have population declines of 25 to 50%, including China (1.4 billion in 2020 to 732 million in 2100).
The population of sub-Saharan Africa is forecast to triple over the next 80 years, from an estimated 1.03 billion in 2020 to 3.07 billion in 2100 - with death rates lowering and an increasing number of women entering reproductive age.
Nearly every country in the world is looking at a dwindling population and 23 nations - Japan and Spain among them - could see their populations cut in half by the end of this century.

See full forecast

Last updated: 09 August 2020