Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

The United Nations said Monday (June 17th) that the world’s population is growing at a slower rate and is also getting older, but is still expected to increase from the current 7.7 billion to 9.7 billion in 2050. The projections from the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ Population Division says that nine countries will be responsible for more than half the projected population growth between now and 2050.

They are, in descending order: India; Nigeria; Pakistan; Congo; Ethiopia; Tanzania; Indonesia; Egypt; and the United States. The population in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to nearly double by 2050. The world’s population is also getting older because of increasing life expectancy and and falling fertility rate, which is down to 2.5 births per woman in 2019 from 3.2 births per woman in 1990.