Guardian News and Media. (2022, January 20). By 2050, a quarter of the world’s people will be African – this will shape our future | Edward Paice. The Guardian. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jan/20/by-2050-a-quarter-of-the-worlds-people-will-be-african-this-will-shape-our-future
The world’s population has increased by a third in only two decades. By the end of 2022, the population will reach 8 billion. Fertility rates in places like North America, East Asia, and Europe are normally fewer than 2.1 births per woman. South Korea’s fertility rates have been fewer than 1 for decades. The populations of most of Africa’s nations will double by 2050 due to the product of improving mortality rates and sustained high fertility rates. By 2050, the continent will be home to 25% of the world’s population.
This article talks briefly about the amount that the global population has increased in the past two decades which is astonishing to me. It is crazy to think that out of the entire human history, in just the last 20 years, the world population has increased by a third. The article also talks about fertility and mortality rates which is a gargantuas factor in population growth. It is shocking to see the difference between fertility rates in places like North America and South Korea. Some countries have fertility rates of over two children per woman where other places have fertility rates of less than one child per woman. The fact that Africa will be home to a quarter of the human population in less than 30 years is hard to comprehend. I wonder what Africa and the rest of the world will look like by the year 2050.