By Winnie Kamau
Niger is recording the highest fertility rate in the world, a UN report has revealed.
With the World’s Population estimated to be at 8.5 Billion by 2030 . The current status of 7.3 billion people, 9.7 billion by 2050 and exceed 11 billion in 2100, with India expected to surpass China as the most populous around seven years from now and Nigeria overtaking the United States to become the world’s third largest country around 35 years from now, according to a United Nations report on Sustainable Development agenda.
From the Google Data Explorer on Life Expectancy of the world shows that Niger has the highest fertility rate of 7.57 in the world with a life expectancy of 62 years. Niger’s current population stands at 20.67 million while Hong Kong, China has the least fertility rate of 1.2 but with the highest life expectancy at 83.5 years followed by Japan.
Swaziland has a fertility rate of 3.2 with the least life expectancy in the world standing at 48.9 years followed by Lesotho at 50 years. The comparison data dates from 1960 to 2015.
The UN report reveals that during the 2015-2050 period, half of the world’s population growth is expected to be concentrated in nine countries: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, the United States, Indonesia, and Uganda.
Wu Hongbo, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, whose department produced the 2015 Revision of World Population Prospects, the 24th round of official UN population estimates and projections, noted that understanding the demographic changes that are likely to unfold over the coming years “is key to the design and implementation of the new development agenda.”
“Most of the projected increase in the world’s population can be attributed to a short list of high-fertility countries, mainly in Africa, or countries with already large populations,” according to the report.
At present, China and India remain the two largest countries in the world, each with more than 1 billion people, representing 19 and 18 percent of the world’s population, respectively, but by 2022, the population of India is expected to surpass that of China, according to the report’s projection.
Among the 10 largest countries in the world currently, one is in Africa (Nigeria), five are in Asia (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan), two are in Latin America (Brazil and Mexico), one is in Northern America (US), and one is in Europe (Russian Federation).
“Of these, Nigeria’s population, currently the seventh largest in the world, is growing the most rapidly,” said the report. Consequently, the population of Nigeria is projected to surpass that of the United States by about 2050, at which point it would become the third largest country in the world.
