World population to reach 8 billion by Nov. 15, says U.N. 

The United Nations estimated on Monday that the world’s population will reach 8 billion by November 15 in a new report. Additionally, the report, released on World Population Day, claims that India will replace China as the world’s most populated nation. 

According to the report “World Population Prospects 2020,” the world’s population will have grown to 8.5 billion by 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050, and will peak at 10.4 billion by 2080. The population is forecasted to remain at 10.4 billion until 2100. 

However, the U.N. claimed that 2020 was the first time the world’s population growth fell below 1% since 1950, mostly because fertility has declined in many countries in the past decades. 

“Today, two-thirds of the global population lives in a country or area where lifetime fertility is below 2.1 births per woman, roughly the level required for zero growth in the long run, for a population with low mortality,” said the agency in a press release.

Additionally, 61 countries are expected to have their population decrease by at least one percent over the next 30 years due to the low fertility rates and migration.  

The report projects that the world’s population increase will mostly be concentrated in eight countries: Pakistan, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, India, Ethiopia, Congo, and Egypt. The countries in sub-Saharan Africa alone are expected to contribute more than half of the increase. 

U.N. Undersecretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Liu Zhenmin, said that the population growth in these areas might make fighting against poverty, combating malnutrition, and increasing education more difficult. 

While the report estimates that the world will cross the 8 billion population mark, John Wilmoth, director of the U.N. Population Division, said the agency does “not pretend that’s the actual date… and we think that the uncertainty is at least plus or minus a year.”