UN releases World Population Prospects (WPP)

Context

Recently, the United Nations has released the 2022 edition of the World Population Prospects (WPP).

About World Population Prospects (WPP) 

• The Population Division of the UN has been publishing the WPP in a biennial cycle since 1951.
• Each revision of the WPP provides a historical time series of population indicators starting in 1950.
• It does so by taking into account newly released national data to revise estimates of past trends in fertility, mortality or international migration.

Key-points for the global population

• Slow pace of growth
• The world’s population continues to grow, but the pace of growth is slowing down.
• The global population is expected to grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion in 2100.
• In 2020, the global growth rate fell under 1% per year for the first time since 1950.
• Region-wise differential
• Rates of population growth vary significantly across countries and regions.
• More than half of the projected increase in global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in just eight countries- Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania.
• Disparate growth rates among the world’s largest countries will re-order their ranking by size.
• Ageing population
• The population of older persons is increasing both in numbers and as a share of the total.
• The share of the global population aged 65 years or above is projected to rise from 10% in 2022 to 16% in 2050.
• The report suggests measures for ageing population by improving the sustainability of social security and pension systems and by establishing universal health care and long-term care systems.
• Decline in fertility rate
• A sustained drop in fertility has led to an increased concentration of the population at working ages (between 25 and 64 years), creating an opportunity for accelerated economic growth per capita.
• This shift in the age distribution provides a time-bound opportunity for accelerated economic growth known as the “demographic dividend”.
• International migration
• This is having important impacts on population trends for some countries.
• For high-income countries between 2000 and 2020, the contribution of international migration to population growth (net inflow of 80.5 million) exceeded the balance of births over deaths (66.2 million).
• Over the next few decades, migration will be the sole driver of population growth in high-income countries.
• In many of these countries, the outflows were due to temporary labour movements, such as for Pakistan (net flow of -16.5 million), India (-3.5 million), Bangladesh (-2.9 million), Nepal (-1.6 million) etc.