CROWDCONTROL
Depending on who you talk to, the earth’s population rose to 7 billion very recently or sometime last summer,
or maybe in 2011. Regardless, that’s an increase of 1 billion since 1999. But while such a figure might suggest
that we’ll all be living nose-to-nose in a few decades, the
rate
of population growth has actually been falling since
the 1960s—meaning that while there may be more people on the planet, those people, as individuals,
are making fewer babies. In honor of that milestone, here’s a whirlwind tour of today’s population trends.
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
JANUARY 2013
•
DATA VISUALIZATION BY CATALOGTREE
17
DISPATCHES
SOURCES: WORLD BANK, CIA/THE WORLD FACTBOOK
1960
2010
2000
1990
1980
1970
3
2
1
POPULATION GROWTH RATE BY REGION (in percent)
TI
C
EUROPE & CENTRAL ASIA
/
NORTH AMERICA
/
OW RLD /
EAST ASIA & PACIFIC
/
LA N AMERI A & CARIBBEAN
/
SOUTH ASIA
/
MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA
/
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
WORLD POPULATION OVER THE PAST TWO CENTURIES (in billions)
1804
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1927
1960
1974
1987
1999
2011
CHINA
POPULATION:
1,343,239,923
FERTILITY RATE:
1.6
births per woman
LIFE EXPECTANCY:
74.8
years
INDIA
POPULATION:
1,205,073,612
FERTILITY RATE:
2.6
births per woman
LIFE EXPECTANCY:
67.1
years
U.S.
POPULATION:
313,847,465
FERTILITY RATE:
2.1
births per woman
LIFE EXPECTANCY:
78.5
years
INDONESIA
POPULATION:
248,645,008
FERTILITY RATE:
2.2
births per woman
LIFE EXPECTANCY:
71.6
years
FOUR MOST POPULOUS NATIONS ON EARTH (estimate, as of July 2012)
