2021 World Population Data Sheet Released

The 2021 World Population Data Sheet released by the US Population Reference Bureau in August 2021 gives these messages:

• World population in mid-2021 is estimated to be 7.8 billion.
• While COVID-19 has dramatically changed the way we live and work in the short-term, it will be years before we have a full understanding of the pandemic’s longer-term impact on populations.
• COVID-19 is likely the cause of an increase in crude death rates in some countries around the world and a dip in life expectancy in the United States. 
• While the pandemic’s impact on fertility rates is still largely unknown, the global population is on course to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, a nearly 24% increase over 2020.

• India is projected to have the greatest absolute increase in population size of any country between 2021 and 2050, rising nearly 246 million to 1.64 billion.
• China, Thailand, and Ukraine are among 39 countries and territories projected to have smaller populations by 2050.
• Globally, the total fertility rate dropped from 3.2 in 1990 to 2.3 in 2020. But wide variations can be found across regions, ranging from 4.7 in sub-Saharan Africa to 1.3 in East Asia and Southern Europe.
• Global life expectancy at birth is 75 years for women and 71 years for men.