Global Population

Population Growth By Region

Asia, Then Africa

Population growth in East and Southeasia Asia – notably in China – has peaked and will decline in the coming decades. The trend will be delayed, but similar, in Central and South Asia.

Sub-Saharan Africa will become the world’s most populous region.

With sustained high birth rates due to medical advances, Sub-Saharan Africa will become the world’s most populous region by the end of the century. The African population will likely continue growing even as all other regions decline. The Global North is marked by declining birth rates and aging populations. The trend is similar, although slightly delayed, in Latin America.

Projected Global Population By Country 2050

Nigeria

By 2050, Nigeria will surpass the United States as the third most populous nation in the world, even as Nigeria’s landmass is one-tenth that of the U.S. Sub-Saharan nations like Nigeria, DR Congo, and Tanzania will witness the most rapid population swings in the world.

Brazil and Mexico will exit from the world’s ten most populous nations. With an expanding middle class and attendant declining birth rates, Latin America will occupy a smaller and smaller percentage of the global population.

Germany was the final Western European nation to remain in the top ten, falling out of the list in the 1980s. Sustained by immigration, the United States will be the only nation in the Global North, and the Western Hemisphere, to remain in the world’s ten most populous nations in 2050.

Most Populous Countries