The global population growth rate has fallen from 2.2% in 1964 to approximately 0.8% today -

The world’s population continued to grow in 2024, reaching 8.2 billion inhabitants.

India’s population increased by 16 million people, Nigeria’s by 2.5 million, Brazil’s by 1 million, and the United States’ by 500,000.

However, the growth rate of the world’s population reached its peak in the 1960s, at around 2.2% per year in 1964. It has since fallen to less than 1% today (approximately 0.8-0.9%).

According to UN projections published in 2024:

the world’s population reached 8.2 billion in 2024;
it is expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050;
peak at 10.3 billion in the mid-2080s;
and then begin to decline slightly before 2100.

Many countries recorded more deaths than births in 2024.
The demographic deficit reached:
– 3.4 million in China,
– nearly 1 million in Japan,
– 455,000 in Italy,
– 350,000 in the United Kingdom,
– 330,000 in Germany.

While people aged 60 and over accounted for 12% of the world’s population in 2015, they will represent 25% by 2050.

This long-term trend results from a dual phenomenon:

the increase in global life expectancy: it rose from 64.0 years in 1990 to 73.3 years in 2024 and is expected to reach nearly 77 years by 2050. In Europe, it increased by 17 years since 1950, rising from 62 to 79 years in 2023;
and above all the decline in fertility: the global fertility rate fell from 3.31 children per woman in 1990 to 2.25 in 2024. According to projections, it could decline further to around 2.07 children per woman by 2050.

The evolution of fertility rates in the seven countries shown below illustrates this trend:

	¹⁹⁶⁰	¹⁹⁸⁰	²⁰⁰⁰	²⁰¹⁰	²⁰²⁴
^Denmark	^2.57	^1.56	^1.77	^1.87	^1.47
^Finland	^2.72	^1.63	^1.73	^1.87	^1.25
^France	^2.74	^1.95	^1.87	^2.02	^1.62**
^Japan	^2.02	^1.73	^1.36	^1.38	^1.14
^Poland	^/	^2.26	^1.37	^1.37	^1.16**
^Spain	^/	^2.21	^1.21	^1.37	^1.12
^{United Kingdom}	^2.68	^1.87	^1.65	^1.94	^1.49*
^{United States}	^3.67	^1.82	^2.05	^1.92	^1.6

(*) Data for 2022 (**) Data for 2023

Below are the projected fertility rates for 2050 for 42 countries, ranked in ascending order:

Country	Fertility Rate 2050
South Korea	1.03
China	1.18
Chile	1.24
Italy	1.35
Japan	1.35
Spain	1.36
Canada	1.39
Poland	1.40
Finland	1.41
Greece	1.41
Austria	1.43
Belgium	1.49
Norway	1.50
Netherlands	1.51
Sweden	1.52
Switzerland	1.52
Argentina	1.54
Germany	1.54
Russia	1.54
United Kingdom	1.55
Brazil	1.56
Denmark	1.57
Portugal	1.57
Colombia	1.58
Ireland	1.60
New Zealand	1.62
Australia	1.64
United States	1.64
France	1.65
Mexico	1.70
India	1.76
Saudi Arabia	1.88
Israel	2.31
Senegal	2.82
Cameroon	2.96
Côte d’Ivoire	3.07
Afghanistan	3.09
Mauritania	3.14
Niger	3.22
Angola	3.24
Central African Republic	3.36
Congo	3.66