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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