On November 15th 2022, a significant event rocked the world: humanity’s population reached 8 billion people for the first time in history. The growing population has implications for governments and businesses, which are developing policies and strategies to address them. For example, there might be potential labor shortages as the global population ages into retirement. There are also expectations for slower GDP growth and increasing industry demands to cater to the elderly. One major contributor to population growth is life expectancy, which has risen from 29 to 73 years since 1800. This increase also leads to a decrease in fertility rates as people live longer. Countries with better health tend to have lower fertility rates. Among countries with the highest populations are China and India, with 1.426 billion and 1.417 billion respectively. The world population growth rate is at 0.83% per year, but not all countries have the same rate; in some cases countries are actually losing population.
Infographic by: gradschoolcenter
