THE UN’s latest World Population Prospects forecasts a rise from 7.2 billion people today to 9.6 billion in 2050—300m more than it had previously estimated. This reflects increasing fertility rates in populous countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. More than half of the extra 2.4 billion will be African, accounting for 25% of the total, up from 16% now.
Europe will be the only region to shrink, with the biggest falls in former Soviet countries. Bulgaria and Russia are among the worst hit. Back in 1950 Europe had 22% of the world’s 2.5 billion people and Germany, Britain and Italy were among the ten most populous countries.
