World population to hit eight billion – as projections reveal where is growing the fastest
The world’s eight billionth resident will be born today, according to projections by the United Nations Population Division.
The global population will reach eight billion – three times the size it was in 1950 – and although there are more people on Earth than ever before because we’re living longer, population growth is at its slowest rate in over 70 years.
In 2020 the global population growth rate fell below 1%. This is largely due to a reduced birth rate, with women having fewer children due to widespread contraception and better education and mobility for women and girls.
The global population is also getting older – 10% are aged over 65, and this will increase to 16% by 2050.
By 2050 the number of over-65s will be twice that of those under five.
Where is it growing the fastest?
The two fastest-growing regions in the world are East and Southeast Asia, which is home to 2.3 billion people; and central and South Asia, which has 2.1 billion people.
Currently, China and India are the joint-most populated countries in the world, with 1.4 billion people each.
But based on UN projections, India will surpass China for the first time in 2023.
Religious ceremony in Mumbai, India on 31 October
Sub-Saharan Africa is the next most-populous region, with more than 50% of population growth expected to come from there between now and 2050.
The biggest increases in growth will come specifically from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania, which will both see their populations double in the next 30 years.
Elsewhere in Africa, the biggest surges in growth will be in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt.
In Asia outside of India and China, the biggest growth will happen in Pakistan and the Philippines.
More generally, 46 of the least developed countries in the world will have the fastest growing populations between now and 2050.
Most of this growth (two thirds) will be driven by what has already happened – and the youthful structure of the current population.
People queue for COVID testing in Beijing, China on 9 November
Where is the population shrinking?
The world population is growing slower than it has in decades due to long periods of low fertility.
More than two thirds of people live in countries where women have 2.1 children or fewer in their lifetimes.
This is roughly the level that would produce zero growth worldwide.
Some 61 countries will see their populations decrease by 1% or more between now and 2050 – either due to decreased birth rates or increased levels of migration.
Read more:
Overpopulation hitting the poorest as family planning remains contentious in Nigeria
Devastation in Arkhanhelske, Kherson, Ukraine
COVID decreases life expectancy
Overall life expectancy fell from 72.8 years before the pandemic in 2019 to 71 years in 2021.
COVID’s impact was not the same for every region, however.
Central and southern Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean’s life expectancies were hit the most – decreasing by around three years.
But in Australia and New Zealand, which both shut their borders and pursued a ‘zero COVID’ policy for most of the pandemic, life expectancy increased by 1.2 years due to a decreased risk of dying from other causes during successive lockdowns.
Coronavirus may have resulted in some short-term reductions in pregnancies, but there was no evidence of an overall decline, UN experts said.
What’s next?
The global population will continue to grow – to around 8.5 billion people by 2030 and 9.7 billion by 2050.
It will start to peak at around 10.4 billion people in the 2080s and remain at that level until 2100.
After that, trends are uncertain.
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Australia, New Zealand, the rest of Oceania, North Africa and Western Asia will still be growing in population by the end of this century.
But the rest of the world, including Europe and North America, will have reached their peak and started to decline before the year 2100.
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said of the eight billion milestone: “This is an occasion to celebrate our diversity, recognise our common humanity, and marvel at advancements in health that have extended lifespans and dramatically reduced maternal and child mortality rates.”
But he added: “At the same time, it is a reminder of our shared responsibility to care for our planet and a moment to reflect on where we still fall short of our commitments to one another.”
Sky News has obtained shocking CCTV from inside the main hospital in the city of Sweida in southern Syria – where our team found more than 90 corpses laid out in the grounds following a week of intense fighting.
Warning this article shows images of a shooting
The CCTV images show men in army fatigues shooting dead a volunteer dressed in medical scrubs at point-blank range while a crowd of other terrified health workers are held at gunpoint with their hands in the air.
The mainly Druze city of Sweida was the scene of nearly a week of violent clashes, looting and executions last month which plunged the new authorities into their worst crisis since the toppling of the country’s former dictator Bashar al Assad.
The new Syrian government troops were accused of partaking in the atrocities they were sent in to quell between the Druze minority and the Arab Bedouin minority groups.
The government troops were forced to withdraw when Israeli jets entered the fray, saying they were protecting the Druze minority and bombed army targets in Sweida and the capital Damascus.
Men in military fatigues enter the hospital.
The hospital volunteer is seen on the floor moments before he was shot
A second man fires with a handgun
Days of bloodletting ensued, with multiple Arab tribes, Druze militia and armed gangs engaging in pitched battles and looting before a ceasefire was agreed.
The government troops then set up checkpoints and barricades encircling Sweida to prevent the Arab tribes re-entering.
The extrajudicial killing captured on CCTV inside the Sweida hospital is corroborated by eyewitnesses we spoke to who were among the group, as well as other medics in the hospital and a number of survivors and patients.
Body bags in the grounds of hospital
The CCTV is date- and time-stamped as mid-afternoon on 16 July and the different camera angles show the men (who tell the hospital workers they are government troops) marauding through the hospital; and in at least one case, smashing the CCTV cameras with the butt of a rifle.
One of the nurses present, who requested anonymity, told us: “They told us if we talked about the shooting or showed any film, we’d be killed too. I thought I was going to die.”
Dr Obeida Abu Fakher, a doctor who was in the operating section at the time, told us: “They told us they were the new Syrian army and interior police. We cannot have peace with these people. They are terrorists.”
Read more:
Inside Sweida: The Syrian city ravaged by sectarian violence
Who are the Druze and who are they fighting in Syria?
Why Israel is getting involved in Syria’s internal fighting
A destroyed ambulance in Sweida
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Multiple patients and survivors told us when we visited the hospital last month that government troops had participated in the horror which swept through Sweida for days but this is the first visual evidence that some took part in atrocities inside the main hospital.
In other images, one of the men can be seen smashing the CCTV camera with the butt of his rifle – and another is wearing a black sweater which appears to be the uniform associated with the country’s interior security.
One survivor calling himself Mustafa Sehnawi, an American citizen from New Jersey, told us: “It’s the government who sent those troops, it’s the government of Syria who killed those people… we need help.”
Mustafa Sehnawi speaks to Sky’s Alex Crawford
A destroyed tank in Sweida
The government responded with a statement from the interior ministry saying they would be investigating the incident which they “denounced and condemned” in the strongest terms.
The statement went on to promise all those involved would be “held accountable” and punished.
The new Syrian president Ahmed al Sharaa is due to attend the United Nations General Assembly next month in New York – the first time a Syrian leader has attended since 1967 – and what happened in Sweida is certain to be among the urgent topics of discussion.
A funeral was held for five Al Jazeera journalists who were targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Sunday night, as the UN said the killings were a “grave breach of international law”.
Correspondents Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Moamen Aliwa, and their assistant Mohammed Noufal, died after a strike on a tent near Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
The Israeli military defended the attack, claiming the most prominent of the group, Sharif, was the head of a Hamas terrorist cell and only “posed as a journalist” – claims consistently denied by Sharif himself, Al Jazeera and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
A sixth journalist – a freelancer called Mohammad al Khaldi – was also killed in the strike, medics at the Al Shifa Hospital told Reuters.
Mourners attend the funeral of the Al Jazeera journalists. Pic: Reuters
Al Jazeera called the killing of its journalists a “targeted assassination” and described its employees as some of the “last remaining voices within Gaza”.
Read more:
Israel silences more crucial reporting voices from inside Gaza
Al Jazeera condemns ‘assassination’ of its journalists in Gaza
Al Jazeera staff members gather at the network’s studios, to remember their colleagues. Pic: Reuters
“Al Jazeera Media Network condemns in the strongest terms the targeted assassination of its correspondents… by the Israeli occupation forces in yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom,” the broadcaster said.
“This attack comes amid the catastrophic consequences of the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, which has seen the relentless slaughter of civilians, forced starvation, and the obliteration of entire communities.
“The order to assassinate Anas Al-Sharif, one of Gaza’s bravest journalists, and his colleagues, is a desperate attempt to silence the voices exposing the impending seizure and occupation of Gaza.”
The United Nations (UN) secretary-general condemned the killing of the five journalists and called for it to be investigated.
Mourners carry the body of Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif.
Pic: Reuters
A spokesperson said in a media briefing: “These latest killings highlight the extreme risks that journalists continue to face when covering this ongoing conflict.
“The secretary-general calls for an independent, impartial investigation into these latest killings.”
He added that “at least” 242 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war began.
The UN’s human rights office condemned the killings earlier on Monday, labelling the strike by Israel a “grave breach of international humanitarian law”.
The war began on 7 October in 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel and killed 1,200 people, taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli numbers.
Of the 50 hostages still in Gaza, Israeli authorities say 20 are still alive.
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Israel’s offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Hamas-run Gaza.
It comes as prominent journalists across media organisations continue to join calls for access to Gaza, which Israel has forbidden throughout the war.
On Sunday, Palestinian envoy to the UN Riyad Mansour said Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should let the UN Security Council into Gaza.
“Take journalists with you so that you can verify exactly what is happening in Gaza,” he said.
The targeted killing of Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif and four other colleagues by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) late on Sunday silences more crucial reporting voices from inside Gaza.
The IDF wasted no time in releasing a statement claiming it had “eliminated” Al-Sharif, calling him a “terrorist” who “posed” as a journalist for Al Jazeera.
Gaza latest: Follow live updates
The Committee to Protect Journalists warned in July that Al-Sharif was the victim of an Israeli smear campaign and that they feared for his safety.
The IDF had previously released documents which they say proved his involvement with Hamas.
Gazan journalist Anas Al-Sharif leaves behind a wife and two children
No word from them on his colleagues – Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa – who they also killed. We are chasing.
Al-Sharif’s death – and that of his four colleagues – is a chilling message to the journalistic community both on the ground and elsewhere ahead of Israel’s impending push into Gaza City.
There will now be fewer journalists left to cover that story, and – if it is even possible – they will be that bit more fearful.
This is how journalists are silenced. Israel knows this full well.
It has also not allowed international journalists independent access to enter Gaza to report on the war.
Al-Sharif’s death has sent shockwaves across the region, where he was a household name. He was prolific on social media and had a huge following.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Read more from Sky News:
Journalists demand access to Gaza
Sky News on Israel’s ‘war on truth’
Reporters issue demand to Israel
I was watching horrifying footage of the immediate aftermath of the strike in the taxi on my way into the bureau, and the driver told me how he and his family had all cried for Anas when the news came in.
His little daughter cried because of Al-Sharif’s little daughter, Sham, who she knew from social media.
“They call everyone Hamas,” my taxi driver said. “Men, women, children”.
Last month, Al-Sharif wrote this post: “I haven’t stopped covering [the crisis] for a moment in 21 months, and today I say it outright… and with indescribable pain.
“I am drowning in hunger, trembling in exhaustion and resisting the fainting that follows me every moment… Gaza is dying. And we die with it.”
This is what journalists in Gaza are facing, every single day.
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