World Population Distribution By Country

The global population was 7.244 billion as of July 2014 according to the medium fertility estimate by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division and it is projected to reach 7.325 billion in July 2015.

According to the World Health Organization in 2014, it is estimated that 54% of the world’s population is living in urban areas – with more than one billion people added to urban areas, globally, since 2000.

It was only in 2008, however that a majority of the world’s population, for the first time, lived in urban areas – resulting in major implications for health - and health equity (differences in the quality of health and healthcare across different populations).

By 2014, in 64 countries 80% or more of the population lived in urban areas; and in 28 additional countries 90% or more did so. UN-Habitat estimates that the number of people living in slum conditions, globally, is 863 million, in contrast to 760 million in 2000 and 650 million in 1990.

According to Hans Rosling, global health expert and a co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontièrs, however we have reached peak child – where the number of children is no longer growing in the world.

An aging population – the inevitable outcome of people living longer and choosing to have fewer children, is progressing more rapidly in developed nations, but is occurring or will soon begin in all major parts of the world. This creates economic, social and health challenges. 

A rate of two children per woman is considered the replacement rate for a population, rates above two children indicate populations growing in size and whose median age is declining and rates below two children indicate populations decreasing in size and growing older.

POPULATION DISTRIBUTION BY COUNTRY

Predictions of global population vary from 9.6 billion to 12.3 billion by 2100, according to United Nations Population Division. A far rosier prediction by Wolfgang Lutz and his colleagues at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Vienna, Austria, suggests the global population will reach 9.4 billion in 2075 and fall to just under 9 billion by 2100.

Is Population Distribution Linked With Life Expectancy?

FACTORS AFFECTING POPULATION GROWTH

Educated women in developed countries bear fewer children, less than the replacement rate, while women in underdeveloped and developing countries bear more children - which is largely cited as being the result of a lack of educational opportunities and work opportunities for women in emerging countries, and lack of access to contraceptives in those countries.

Opinions on the impact of population growth and climate change are divergent. On the one hand, developed nations consume the most fossil fuels, despite stagnant or dropping populations, while rising populations in developing nations, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, consume far less fossil fuels – switching the debate from over-population to over-consumption.

However, according to the United Nations Population Fund, fast-growing developing countries (China and India) will contribute more than half of global CO2 emissions by 2050, so there is a concern that as developing nation’s contribution to global emissions grows, population size and growth rates will become significant factors in magnifying the impacts of climate change. The outcome of global talks on reducing carbon emissions are still to be seen.