World Population

Timeline

The following figures were taken from Worldometers, in May 2017. Since 1951 they have been compiled by the United Nations. They are all, of course, estimates.

8,000 BC (the dawn of agriculture)		5 million
At the time of Christ		165 million
1000 AD		275 million
World population reached 1 billion		1804
World population reached 2 billion		1930
World population reached 3 billion		1959
World population reached 4 billion		1974
World population reached 5 billion		1987
World population reached 6 billion		1999
World population reached 7 billion		2011

		2017 estimate		2022 estimate
World population forecast to reach 8 billion (nearest 5 years)		2023		2025
World population forecast to reach 9 billion (nearest 5 years)		2037		2040
World population forecast to reach 10 billion		2057		2056

According to Worldometer, in 2017 there were about 384,000 births and 155,000 deaths each day – giving a population growth of approximately 129,000 per day, or approximately 1.5 every second. The population of China was estimated to be increasing by approximately one every six seconds, and that of India by approximately one every two seconds.

Annual population growth peaked at 2.10% in 1968, since when it has declined steadily to 1.11%.

The world's 10 most populous countries

The population figures in this section and the next are taken from worldpopulationreview.com. This is an independent organisation based in the USA, but these figures are the United Nations World Population Prospects estimates for 2022, made in 2019. These are the latest figures available, as of June 2022.

Population ranking	Population			Area ranking
1	1,448 million		China	3
2	1,407 million		India	7
3	335 million		USA	4
4	279 million		Indonesia	14
5	229 million		Pakistan	33
6	217 million		Nigeria	31
7	215 million		Brazil	5
8	168 million		Bangladesh	92
9	146 million		Russia	1
10	132 million		Mexico	13

According to the same source, the United Kingdom is the 21st most populous country, with an estimated 68,497,907 people.

One of the five biggest countries by area is not in the top ten by population:

The world's second largest country, by area (2022 population estimate 38.4 million – ranking 37)

Canada

The world's 10 least populous countries

Taking our cue from Pointless, these are the least populous member states of the United Nations (UN), according to the United Nations World Population Prospects estimates for 2022.

Note that the Vatican City is excluded because it isn't a full voting member of the UN. It is the world's smallest country (sovereign or otherwise), by both population and area. The Holy See, which holds sovereignty over the Vatican, is a full member of the UN but does not have voting rights. (The Holy See is the ecclesiastical jurisdiction – effectively the governing body – of the Catholic Church.)

Population ranking	Population			Area ranking
1	10,903		Nauru	2
2	12,066		Tuvalu	3
3	18,233		Palau	15
4	34,085		San Marino	4
5	38,387		Liechtenstein	6
6	39,783		Monaco	1
7	53,871		Saint Kitts and Nevis	7
8	60,057		Marshall Islands	6
9	72,344		Dominica	21
10	77,463		Andorra	16

In many of the world's smallest countries, the population is actually falling. Several of these rankings have changed since the latest figures published on this page (from 2016, taken from Wikipedia). In particular, the first two countries have swapped places – although both of their (estimated) populations have increased: Tuvalu's by 2,123, but Nauru's by only 640.

The world's 10 most populous cities

Like the population figures for countries (above), these are the latest United Nations estimates for 2022. They come from the 2018 revision of the World Urbanization Prospects, and were taken from worldpopulationreview.com.

Population ranking	Country	Population
1	Japan	37,435,191		Tokyo
2	India	29,399,141		Delhi
3	China	26,317,104		Shanghai
4	Brazil	21,846,507		Sao Paulo
5	Mexico	21,671,908		Mexico City
6	Egypt	20,484,965		Cairo
7	Bangladesh	20,283,552		Dhaka
8	India	20,185,064		Mumbai
9	China	20,035,455		Beijing
10	Japan	19,222,665		Osaka

London is 35th on this list, withg an estimated population of 9,540,576.

© Haydn Thompson 2017–22