World population

In demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently living. It was estimated by the United Nations to have exceeded eight billion in mid-November 2022. It took around 300,000 years of human prehistory and history for the human population to reach one billion and only 222 years more to reach 8 billion.[3]

The human population has experienced continuous growth following the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the end of the Black Death in 1350, when it was nearly 370,000,000.[4] The highest global population growth rates, with increases of over 1.8% per year, occurred between 1955 and 1975, peaking at 2.1% between 1965 and 1970.[5] The growth rate declined to 1.1% between 2015 and 2020 and is projected to decline further in the 21st century.[6] The global population is still increasing, but there is significant uncertainty about its long-term trajectory due to changing fertility and mortality rates.[7] The UN Department of Economics and Social Affairs projects between 9 and 10 billion people by 2050 and gives an 80% confidence interval of 10–12 billion by the end of the 21st century,[2] with a growth rate by then of zero. Other demographers predict that the human population will begin to decline in the second half of the 21st century.[8]

The total number of births globally is currently (2015–2020) 140 million/year, which is projected to peak during the period 2040–2045 at 141 million/year and then decline slowly to 126 million/year by 2100.[9] The total number of deaths is currently 57 million/year and is projected to grow steadily to 121 million/year by 2100.[10]

The median age of human beings as of 2020^[update] is 31 years.[11]