Samikhsya Bureau
There will be around 9.7 billion people living on earth by 2050, a UN population report released on Monday said. The report said that India was expected to register the highest population growth between now and 2050 and might overtake China as the most populous country by 2027. The population of the world is expected to swell to 10.9 billion by the end of the century, according to the report.
The growth in population, experts say, may worsen hunger and poverty and accelerate climate change.
Eight other countries that will show higher population growth than others are Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Indonesia, Egypt and United States of America. Interestingly, growth in population in these nine countries against the backdrop of a slowing global fertility rate, according to the report.
“Many of the fastest growing populations are in the poorest countries, where population growth brings additional challenges”, UN News quoted Liu Zhenmin, United Nations under-secretary-general for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) as saying. The challenges, according to the report, include the fight to eradicate poverty, combat hunger and malnutrition, improved healthcare and education, greater equality.
On the contrary, the report said that the population size of more and more countries was falling. Between 2019 and 2050, at least 55 countries would have one per cent or more decrease in population — a half of them even experiencing 10 per cent drop — the report said. In some cases, it said, the fall in population was propelled by migration. In some countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and the Philippines, which have shown largest migratory outflow, migration has resulted due to demand for migrant workforce in other countries. In some other countries like Myanmar, Syria, Venezuela the outflow of people is due to internal armed conflicts, insecurity and violence.
Another finding of the report is that one in six persons will be over the age of 65 by 2050, up from one in 11 persons now. A quarter of population of Europe and Northern America could be over the age of 65 by 2050, the report said. The countries having higher proportion of older people will have added financial burden of higher cost of public health, pension and social protection system.
