India to surpass China’s population by 2022

Move over: The world’s population is expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050, a new United Nations report says.

The projections also are that by 2050 Nigeria may surpass the US and become the world’s third-most populous country, according to estimates made public on Wednesday by the United Nations.

“Regardless of the uncertainty surrounding future trends in fertility in Africa, the large number of young people now on the continent who will reach adulthood in the coming years and have children of their own, ensures that the region will play a central role in shaping the size and distribution of the world’s population over the coming decades”, says the report.

“Most of the projected increase in the world’s population can be attributed to a short list of high-fertility countries-mainly in Africa-or countries with already large populations”, the UNsaid in a press release describing the report.

India will overtake China as the planet’s biggest country in SEVEN years time, while an extra one billion people will be born within the next 15 years and 2.4bn people will be added to the global population by 2050 – bringing the total to 9.7bn.

Most startling is the increasing population of Africa, which is expected to jump from 1.1bn today to 4.3bn in 2100.

The population of Latin America and the Caribbean, meanwhile, will increase from the current 634 million to 721 million by 2030 and 784 million by 2050 but will then begin to decline, falling back to about 721 million by the end of the century.

These countries include India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, the U.S., Indonesia and Ghana.

And with the highest rate of population growth, Africa is expected to account for more than half of the worlds population growth over the next 35 years.

By 2050, Nigeria’s population will surpass that of the US.

A significant ageing of the population in the next several decades is projected for most regions of the world, starting with Europe where 34 per cent of the population is projected to be over 60 years old by 2050.

The report also sounded a warning about aging in the UK, saying that by 2050 the number of Britons aged 80 or older will increase from four percent to nine percent.

John Wilmoth, head of the UN population division, said the concentration of growth in the poorest countries would make it harder to eradicate poverty, combat hunger and expand schooling and health systems.

The UN report, the 2015 Revision of World Population Prospects said that the demographic changes will present world leaders with major challenges.