Culture & Society

Five Facts About The World’s Population

The United Nations’ “World Population Day” is Saturday, July 11.
By Lesley Henton, Texas A&M Marketing & Communications July 6, 2015

Japan
Japan is the only country outside of Europe that is experiencing negative population growth, says Sociology Professor Dudley Poston.

The United Nations’ “World Population Day” is Saturday (July 11). Professor of Sociology Dudley Poston, a demographer and social scientist who studies human populations, took time out from writing the 2nd edition of his intro to demography textbook, “Population and Society,” to share some “worldly” facts.

1. Women in the world today are averaging about 2.5 babies each. But the fertility rate varies greatly from a low of 1.1 children per woman in Taiwan to a high of 7.6 children per woman in Niger.

2. The population size of the world was 2.5 billion in 1950, 4.4 billion in 1980, 7 billion in 2010 and is 7.3 billion today. By 2050 the world will number around 9.6 billion, and by 2100 around 10.9 billion.

3. Europe is experiencing the greatest amount of depopulation and many of Europe’s countries are expected to have smaller populations by 2030. “In Europe as a whole these days, there is virtually no population growth,” says Poston. “The only non-European country with a negative rate of growth is Japan.”

4. Babies born in the world today have an average life expectancy of 73 years if they are girls and 69 years if they are boys. This varies from a high of 86 years for girls and 80 years for boys born in Japan, to a low of 45 years for girls and 42 years for boys born in Lesotho, Africa.

5. In the world today there are roughly 232 million international migrants, comprising around 3 percent of the world’s population. Of these 232 million immigrants worldwide, 46 million of them, 20 percent, live in the United States.

Media contact: Lesley Henton, Texas A&M Division of Marketing & Communications.

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