By Daniel VictorThe rapid population growth has been driven by the world’s poorest countries. More global challenges are ahead.
Commuters in Shanghai in September. The growth rate of China’s population is slowing.Credit...Qilai Shen for The New York Times
Until 1804, fewer than one billion people roamed our planet. More than a century later, in 1927, we crossed two billion.
Since then, the world population has shot up in the shape of a hockey stick, boosted by the triumphs of modern medicine and public health.
The latest marker was passed on Tuesday, when the United Nations said the world population had reached eight billion, just 11 years after it passed seven billion. (It is an inexact number, since there is no official count, but the international organization said its projections crossed the line on Tuesday.)
The growth rate, which is expected to slow globally over the coming decades, has been uneven around the world. Slowing growth rates in populous nations like China and the United States have caused some alarm, threatening to upend their societies. Rising birthrates in poorer nations threaten to strain systems that are already struggling.
