The UN says the world’s population will peak in 2080

The Future. The United Nations released its latest global population report and forecasts that the world will hit its peak population of 10.3 billion by 2080… and then start to decline after that. While the population has skyrocketed since the 1950s (from 2.6 billion to over 8 billion), the report may inspire the governments of developing countries to roll out incentives for families to have more children.

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What’s more fascinating than the global population decreasing is how the population is shifting.

• The probability that the population will peak in the 2080s is 80% — much higher than the 30% probability that the UN gave 10 years ago.
• What changed? The populations of many countries, including China, Germany, and Japan, have already peaked, while 20% of the world has “ultra-low” fertility (an average of 1.4 live births or less per woman; 2.1 is needed to maintain a population).
• In those countries, the populations are expected to decrease by 14% over the next 30 years, leading to a demographic of smaller families and people who live longer.
• Meanwhile, the populations of countries like Nigeria, Angola, and the Congo are expected to double by 2054.

The report concludes that, in 2080, many developed countries will have populations in which people over the age of 65 will outnumber those under the age of 18, and immigration will be “the main driver of future growth” — factors that will revolutionize work all around the world.