Around 10,000 years ago, at the dawn of agriculture, it is estimated that there were around five million people on Earth. A ridiculous number compared to today’s population of 8.1 billion, but what is truly mind-boggling is that in the 20th century alone, the world’s population grew from 1.65 billion to 6,000.

But the pace of growth has been uneven across the world. In a very interesting graphic by Visual Capitalist , we can see how the current world population is distributed and put into perspective just how large some countries’ populations are.

China and India. It should come as no surprise to anyone, but in terms of population, China and India are in the first place. It is interesting to think that out of this 8.1 billion population, two countries contribute 2.8 billion. It will soon be said that this is more than two-thirds of the total.

Specifically, India represents 17.8% of the world’s population with a population of 1,428,627,663 in 2023. China is a small step behind with a population of 1,425,671,352, representing 17.7% of the world’s population.

Africa. However, when we go from countries to regions, Africa comes to the fore. And when it comes to this continent, this is a problem. The total population of different African countries was 1,460,481,772 people and it cannot be said that this number will decrease. It is the region with the highest growth rate in the world, with an annual increase of 2.4%.

Moreover, according to the United Nations estimates, Africa will be one of the regions that will continue to experience a demographic explosion in the coming decades. As we said, it is not a very positive situation because the conditions of the majority of the population show that the average age is 15. Many people are born, but at the same time, the death rate is extremely high.

Europe and Latin America. The fourth largest region includes the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. They closed 2023 with a total population of 664,997,121; the countries that “contributed” the most to this figure (according to Worldmeters data) were Brazil with 216,422,446 people, Mexico with 128,455,567 people and the Philippines with 117,337,368 people. All three countries are showing positive annual growth, although not very high.

On the other side of the coin, there is a Europe (plus the United Kingdom) that is not only very old but also shows a negative annual growth of 0.17%. The total population is 516 million 659 thousand 018 people, with Germany contributing the most with over 80 million people. The demographic pyramid is a problem in many European countries (including Spain) and the reason for this decrease is the number of births.

FutureDespite current cases in China, Europe or Japan (which is also in its own demographic winter), the world population is projected to continue to grow at a rate of 0.91% in 2024, slightly higher than 0.88% in 2023, but below 0.98% in 2020.

The United Nations predicts that the world will reach 10.3 billion people by 2080, although there are regions that have reached demographic peaks, and will be in decline by the end of the century.

Images | Visual Capitalist

In Xataka | The real problem of the 21st century is demographic: we don’t know how to keep the economy afloat with fewer and fewer people.