Earth To Have Nearly 11 Bn People By 2100: UN

WASHINGTON: The Earth is going to have 11 billion people by 2100, with the rising population exacerbating global problems such as climate change, spread of infectious diseases and poverty, said a significant joint study by the United Nations and the University of Washington.

There is, however, a silver lining for the Indian subcontinent: Asia, now with a 4.4 billion population, is projected to peak at around five billion people in 2050 and then begin to decline.

Using modern statistical tools, researchers found that the current number is about two billion higher than widely cited previous estimates.

“The consensus over the past 20 years or so was that world population, which is currently around seven billion, would go up to nine billion and level off or probably decline,” said Adrian Raftery, a professor of statistics and sociology at University of Washington.

“We found there is a 70 percent probability the world population will not stabilise in this century. Population, which had sort of fallen off the world's agenda, remains a very important issue,” he added.

Most of the anticipated growth is in Africa, where population is projected to quadruple from around one billion today to four billion by the end of the 21st century.

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