GENEVA - The world’s population is expected to increase by 2 billion persons in the next 30 years, from 7.7 billion currently to 9.7 billion in 2050, according to the World Population Prospects 2019, which was published by UN DESA’s Population Division on 17 June 2019. The report, providing a comprehensive overview of global demographic patterns and prospects, concluded that the world’s population could reach its peak around the end of the current century, at a level of nearly 11 billion.

The World Population Prospects 2019 (WPP 2019) includes demographic estimates (1950 to current) and projections (current to 2100) for 235 countries or areas. WPP 2019 is accompanied by the 50-page report World Population Prospects 2019: Highlights, a data booklet and ten key findings.

Some of the key findings of the newly released report include:


- The world’s population is projected to grow from 7.7 billion in 2019 to 8.5 billion (+10%) in 2030, to 9.7 billion (+26%) in 2050 and further to 10.9 (42%) billion in 2100.

- While the population continues to grow at the global level, the rate of growth has been slowing since the 1970s and could be zero around the end of the 21st.

- The fastest growing populations are found in the Least Developed Countries, where population growth brings additional challenges in efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

- Although differences in life expectancy across regions have diminished over the past decades, life expectancy at birth in sub-Saharan Africa still lags 11.5 years behind the global average.

- The world’s population will experience unprecedented ageing in the coming decades with 16 per cent of the world’s population aged 65 or over by 2050, up from 9 per cent today.

- The ratio of persons at working ages to those aged 65 years or over is falling with 48 countries expected to have potential support ratios below two by 2050, impacting the labour force and funding of pension systems and social protection.


World Population Prospects, one of the most downloaded products of UN DESA, is used in more than one-third of the indicators of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The release of WPP 2019 is the twenty-sixth edition of this dataset, produced by the Population Division every two years since 1951.

Following the release in New York, the Population Division organized launch activities with research centers located in Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, the United States among other locations.