Where is population growing most rapidly

Our understanding of the world is often shaped by geographical maps. But this tells us nothing about where in the world people live. To understand this, we need to look at population density. Globally the average population density is 25 people per km 2 , but there are very large differences across countries. If we want to understand how people are distributed across the world, another useful tool is the population cartogram : a geographical presentation of the world where the size of the countries are not drawn according to the distribution of land, but according to the distribution of people.

Here we show how the world looks in this way. When we see a standard map we tend to focus on the largest countries by area. But these are not always where the greatest number of people live.

The chart shows the increasing number of people living on our planet over the last 12, years. A mind-boggling change: The world population today that is 1,times the size of what it was 12 millennia ago when the world population was around 4 million — half of the current population of London. What is striking about this chart is of course that almost all of this growth happened just very recently.

Historical demographers estimate that around the year the world population was only around 1 billion people. This implies that on average the population grew very slowly over this long time from 10, BCE to by 0. After this changed fundamentally: The world population was around 1 billion in the year and increased 7-fold since then. Around billion people have ever lived on our planet. For the long period from the appearance of modern Homo sapiens up to the starting point of this chart in 10, BCE it is estimated that the total world population was often well under one million.

In this period our species was often seriously threatened by extinction. The interactive visualization is here. And you can also download the annual world population data produced by Our World in Data. A number of researchers have published estimates for the total world population over the long run, we have brought these estimates together and you can explore these various sources here.

In terms of recent developments, the data from the UN Population Division provides consistent and comparable estimates and projections within and across countries and time, over the last century. This data starts from estimates for , and is updated periodically to reflect changes in fertility, mortality and international migration. In the section above we looked at the absolute change in the global population over time.

But what about the rate of population growth? The global population growth rate peaked long ago. The chart shows that global population growth reached a peak in and with an annual growth rate of 2. For the last half-century we have lived in a world in which the population growth rate has been declining. The UN projects that this decline will continue in the coming decades. The answer is no. For population growth to be exponential, the growth rate would have be the same over time e.

In absolute terms, this would result in an exponential increase in the number of people. But, as we see in this chart, since the s the growth rate has been falling.

This means the world population is not growing exponentially — for decades now, growth has been more similar to a linear trend. The previous section looked at the growth rate. This visualization here shows the annual global population increase from to today and the projection until the end of this century. The absolute increase of the population per year has peaked in the late s at over 90 million additional people each year. But it stayed high until recently. From now on the UN expects the annual increase to decline by around 1 million every year.

There are other ways of visually representing the change in rate of world population growth. Two examples of this are shown in the charts below. The visualization shows how strongly the growth rate of the world population changed over time. In the past the population grew slowly: it took nearly seven centuries for the population to double from 0.

As the growth rate slowly climbed, the population doubling time fell but remained in the order of centuries into the first half of the 20th century. Things sped up considerably in the middle of the 20th century. The fastest doubling of the world population happened between and a doubling from 2. This period was marked by a peak population growth of 2. Since then, population growth has been slowing, and along with it the doubling time. In this visualisation we have used the UN projections to show how the doubling time is projected to change until the end of this century.

By , it will once again have taken approximately years for the population to double to a predicted This visualization provides an additional perspective on population growth: the number of years it took to add one billion to the global population.

This visualisation shows again how the population growth rate has changed dramatically through time. By the third billion, this period had reduced to 33 years, reduced further to 15 years to reach four. The period of fastest growth occurred through to , taking only 12 years to increase by one billion for the 5th, 6th and 7th.

The world has now surpassed this peak rate of growth, and the period between each billion is expected to continue to rise. Two hundred years ago the world population was just over one billion.

Since then the number of people on the planet grew more than 7-fold to 7. How is the world population distributed across regions and how did it change over this period of rapid global growth?

In this visualization we see historical population estimates by region from through to today. If you want to see the relative distribution across the world regions in more detail you can switch to the relative view.

The world region that saw the fastest population growth over last two centuries was North America. The population grew fold. Latin America saw the second largest increase fold. Over the same period the population Europe of increased 3-fold, in Africa fold, and in Asia 6-fold. The distribution of the world population is expected to change significantly over the 21st century. We discuss projections of population by region here. Over the last century, the world has seen rapid population growth.

But how are populations distributed across the world? Which countries have the most people? In the map, we see the estimated population of each country today.

By clicking on any country, you can also see how its population has evolved over this period. You can learn more about future population growth by country here.

This series of maps shows the distribution of the world population over time. The first map — in the top-left corner — shows the world population in BC. Global population growth peaked in the early s.

But how has population growth varied across the world? Migration flows are not counted. Both of these measures of population growth across the world are shown in the two charts. You can use the slider underneath each map to look at this change since Clicking on any country will show a line chart of its change over time, with UN projections through to We see that there are some countries today where the natural population growth not including migration is slightly negative: the number of deaths exceed the number of births.

When we move the time slider underneath the map to past years, we see that this is a new phenomenon. Up until the s, there were no countries with a negative natural population growth.

Worldwide, population growth is slowing—you can press the play arrow at the bottom of the chart to see the change over time. Overall, growth rates in most countries have been going down since the s.

Yet substantial differences exist across countries and regions. Moreover, in many cases there has been divergence in growth rates. One of the big lessons from the demographic history of countries is that population explosions are temporary. For many countries the demographic transition has already ended, and as the global fertility rate has now halved we know that the world as a whole is approaching the end of rapid population growth.

The ideal entry-level account for individual users. Corporate solution including all features. Statistics on " Global economy " The most important statistics. The most important statistics. Further related statistics. Countries with the highest population decline rate Top 10 countries with the most billionaires per capita Global population - urban and rural Rate of operating rooms globally by region and per population Lithuanian nationals population of the UK Average size of households in Ukraine Population of Cyprus People affected by depressive symptoms in France , by age group Cities with the most bars globally Laser macroprocessing - global market size by application Further Content: You might find this interesting as well.

Statistics Countries with the highest population decline rate Top 10 countries with the most billionaires per capita Global population - urban and rural Rate of operating rooms globally by region and per population Lithuanian nationals population of the UK Average size of households in Ukraine Population of Cyprus People affected by depressive symptoms in France , by age group Cities with the most bars globally Laser macroprocessing - global market size by application Learn more about how Statista can support your business.

April 7, The 20 countries with the highest population growth rate in compared to the previous year [Graph]. In Statista. Accessed November 12, The 20 countries with the highest population growth rate in compared to the previous year. Statista Inc.. Accessed: November 12, Aa Aa Aa. The basics of population ecology emerge from some of the most elementary considerations of biological facts.

Recall, for example, the basic problem of mitosis, to make two cells from one. When the elementary student first studies mitosis it is usually about the details of what happens, at the cellular and biochemical level.

Here we look at the same problem, but at the other end of the conceptual gradient. When a cell divides, again and again, what does that imply about the resulting collection of cells?

For example, in Figure 1 we see a population of Paramecium over a six day period. How do population ecologists quantitatively describe such a population?

Figure 1. Figure 1: Changes in a population of Paramecium over a six day period. Figure 3: Hypothetical case of a pest population in an agroecosystem. According to model 1 which has a relatively large estimate of R , the farmer needs to think about applying a control procedure about half way through the season. Figure 4: Growth of the human population of the United States of America during the nineteenth century blue curve , and estimates of the intrinsic rates of increase during that period red data points.

Note the general tendency for r to decrease throughout the century even while the overall population is increasing. Figure 5: Representing the intrinsic rate of increase as a function of population density for a laboratory population of Paramecium.

The higher the population density, the lower the intrinsic rate of increase. Figure 6: A laboratory population of Paramecium. Note how the density first looks exponential indeed these are the same data presented in figure 2, but over a longer time frame , but later, after the population gets to around cells per cc, it levels off. Figure 7: Tropical American caterpillar with parasitic wasps emerging and forming cocoons on the caterpillar's back.

Share Cancel. Revoke Cancel. Keywords Keywords for this Article. Save Cancel. Flag Inappropriate The Content is: Objectionable. Flag Content Cancel. Email your Friend. Submit Cancel. This content is currently under construction. Explore This Subject. Topic rooms within Population Ecology Close. No topic rooms are there. Lead Editor: Population Ecology. Or Browse Visually. Other Topic Rooms Ecology. Student Voices. Creature Cast. Simply Science.

Green Screen. Green Science. Bio 2. The Success Code. Why Science Matters. The Beyond. By the Middle East and Africa will be home to around 3. Such an unprecedented boom will present challenges as well as opportunities for the international community. Whereas growth in other populous regions, such as Europe, China and the Americas, has stalled in recent years, in Africa and the Middle East the numbers continue to increase at a rapid rate. By its population could easily have doubled again.

This unprecedented growth is largely due to the fact that infant mortality rates are down significantly and life expectancy has improved. Birth rates remain high at about five children per woman. Meanwhile, in the Middle East, a combination of a rapidly increasing youth population and an influx of migrant workers has propelled countries such as Kuwait and Oman into the top 10 fastest-growing populations.

Having won the right to host the soccer World Cup, Qatar has embarked on some significant construction projects that have required a heavy reliance on migrant labour. The global population has more than tripled since the UN was created in The main knock-on effect of this is the substantially increased demand on shared resources. Environmental problems — from climate change to species loss to overzealous resource extraction — are either caused or exacerbated by population growth. Then there are the less obvious side effects to consider: Air traffic volumes are forecast to double within the next 20 years.