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Changing world population

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Changing world population

Recent research suggests that the world’s population will start to fall in the second half of this century. Some countries are likely to have rapidly declining populations and an increasing proportion of old people. This article looks at the causes, effects and responses to ageing populations.

There are currently about 7.8 billion people living on Earth. For decades, geographers have been concerned that the world population would grow so large — beyond 10 billion — that the planet would not be able to support everyone. However, recent research from the USA suggests that global population might peak at about 9.7 billion in 2064, and after that decline to about 8.8 billion by 2100. In some ways this would be very good news, but declining and ageing populations also cause problems.

The graph in Figure 1 shows changing population size in selected countries using estimates from the American research.

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Daylighting rivers

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Changing world population