GLOBAL SOCIAL CHANGE RESEARCH PROJECT
WORLD TREND REPORTS


Brief Review of World Demographic Trends - Population

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First Copyright April 2012.  May be used provided proper citation is given.  See note at bottom.

This is the first in a set of reports about global demographic trends. In this report, we describe world population trends, where population has been increasing, where it is increasing the most, where the least, which countries are the largest, and what's happening to them. This set of reports is part of a larger project describing basic world social, political and economic trends, in ways that can be easily understood by anyone, and that can help to understand the world today.

This first set of reports describes world population trends, and demographic characteristics which may help explain population trends. The demographic characteristics include net natural change (births, deaths and migration), infant mortality rate, fertility rate and age distributions.
 
Summary

The major points of world population trends are shown in the summary table below.

Summary Table
  Asia
Europe
Latin America and the Caribbean
Northern Africa
Northern America
Sub-Saharan Africa
World
Population
1950 1,403,388,587 547,287,120 167,368,224 52,982,395 171,614,868 186,102,610 2,528,743,804
2010 4,164,252,297 738,198,601 590,082,023 209,459,184 344,528,824 856,327,157 6,902,848,086
Population Growth
1950 to 2010 197% 35% 253% 295% 101% 360% 173%
Population Growth - Annual Average
1950 to 1955 2.1% 1.0% 2.9% 2.5% 1.8% 2.2% 1.9%
2005 to 2010 1.1% 0.2% 1.2% 1.8% 0.9% 2.6% 1.2%
Population Distribution
1950
55.5% 21.6% 6.6% 2.1% 6.8% 7.4% 100%
 2010 60.3% 10.7% 8.5% 3.0% 5.0% 12.4%  100%



Briefly, world population has grown over the last 60 years, from 2.5 billion in 1950 to almost 7 billion in 2010. However, growth varied by region, increasing the most in Africa, then in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia, and increasing the least in Europe. 

In addition, while population is still increasing in all regions, the increase has been slowing, and the slowing varied by region. For example, annual average growth rates in Asia declined from 2.1% during 1950-1955 to 1.1% during 2005-2010. On the other hand, European growth rates declined much more, from 1% during 1950-1955 to 0.2% during 2005-2010.  Sub-Saharan African growth rates in 2005-2010 (2.6%) were actually higher than they were in 1950-1955 (2.2%). However, this is because average annual growth rates in Sub-Saharan Africa increased to a high of 3% in the 1980s and have since been declining, to the level lower than the 1980s level, but still higher than the 1950s level.

As a consequence of the differing growth rates, and differing slow down of growth rates, the proportion of world population that is from each region has changed over time. The largest change was that Sub-Saharan Africa increased from 7.4% of world population in 1950 to 12.4% in 2010, while Europe declined from 21.6% to 10.7%.

The rest of the demographic reports seek to explain the varying growth and slowdown patterns.



Detailed descriptions of world population trends






Charts and tables

Charts

         

Chart 1
world
              population by region

Chart 2
World Population excluding Asia


Chart 3
percent growth by region



Chart 4
largest
              countries 1950


Chart 5
10 largest
              1950, excluding china, india


Chart 6
10 largest
              2010


Chart 7
10 largest
              2010, excluding china, india


Tables  
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Table 1
Population
By Region
(Last Column - Special Case of Eastern Europe)
 

Asia
Europe
Latin America and the Caribbean
Northern Africa
Northern America
Sub-Saharan Africa
World Eastern Europe
1950 1,403,388,587 547,287,120 167,368,224 52,982,395 171,614,868 186,102,610 2,528,743,804 220,122,686
1955 1,549,292,725 575,236,145 191,707,177 59,560,875 186,960,025 206,235,129 2,768,992,076 237,039,502
1960 1,707,682,378 603,853,579 220,058,182 67,493,384 204,317,505 230,796,977 3,034,202,005 252,787,317
1965 1,886,185,733 633,590,766 252,604,959 76,342,131 219,223,662 260,594,848 3,328,542,099 266,561,335
1970 2,134,992,648 655,878,615 286,377,144 86,942,694 231,284,373 295,970,846 3,691,446,320 276,227,086
1975 2,393,055,653 676,123,164 323,073,647 98,795,948 242,360,377 338,654,176 4,072,062,965 285,623,781
1980 2,637,585,518 692,869,011 362,326,018 113,071,877 254,453,552 389,802,238 4,450,108,214 294,929,297
1985 2,906,850,838 706,799,741 402,393,418 129,955,461 267,079,432 448,863,242 4,861,942,132 303,677,257
1990 3,199,480,873 720,497,133 443,031,660 146,188,095 281,161,577 515,593,043 5,305,952,381 310,542,983
1995 3,470,446,102 727,422,115 482,647,055 161,394,729 295,749,132 589,677,124 5,727,336,257 309,882,275
2000 3,719,044,238 726,777,241 521,429,117 176,165,857 313,288,975 669,122,828 6,125,828,256 304,172,420
2005 3,944,992,360 730,735,740 557,037,708 192,016,749 329,231,166 757,513,446 6,511,527,169 297,758,038
2010 4,164,252,297 738,198,601 590,082,023 209,459,184 344,528,824 856,327,157 6,902,848,086 294,770,886
 

Table 2
Population growth
By region
(Last Column - Special Case of Eastern Europe)

Asia Europe Latin America and the Caribbean Northern Africa Northern America Sub-Saharan Africa World Eastern Europe
1950 to1955 2.1% 1.0% 2.9% 2.5% 1.8% 2.2% 1.9% 1.5%
1955 to 1960 2.0% 1.0% 3.0% 2.7% 1.9% 2.4% 1.9% 1.3%
1960 to 1965 2.1% 1.0% 3.0% 2.6% 1.5% 2.6% 1.9% 1.1%
1965 to 1970 2.6% 0.7% 2.7% 2.8% 1.1% 2.7% 2.2% 0.7%
1970 to 1975 2.4% 0.6% 2.6% 2.7% 1.0% 2.9% 2.1% 0.7%
1975 to 1980 2.0% 0.5% 2.4% 2.9% 1.0% 3.0% 1.9% 0.7%
1980 to 1985 2.0% 0.4% 2.2% 3.0% 1.0% 3.0% 1.9% 0.6%
1985 to 1990 2.0% 0.4% 2.0% 2.5% 1.1% 3.0% 1.8% 0.5%
1990 to 1995 1.7% 0.2% 1.8% 2.1% 1.0% 2.9% 1.6% 0.0%
1995 to 2000 1.4% 0.0% 1.6% 1.8% 1.2% 2.7% 1.4% -0.4%
2000 to 2005 1.2% 0.1% 1.4% 1.8% 1.0% 2.6% 1.3% -0.4%
2005 to 2010 1.1% 0.2% 1.2% 1.8% 0.9% 2.6% 1.2% -0.2%



Table 3

Population Distribution
By Region


Asia      Europe      Latin America and the Caribbean      Northern Africa      Northern America
Sub-Saharan Africa     
1950 55.5% 21.6% 6.6% 2.1% 6.8% 7.4%
1955 56.0% 20.8% 6.9% 2.2% 6.8% 7.4%
1960 56.3% 19.9% 7.3% 2.2% 6.7% 7.6%
1965 56.7% 19.0% 7.6% 2.3% 6.6% 7.8%
1970 57.8% 17.8% 7.8% 2.4% 6.3% 8.0%
1975 58.8% 16.6% 7.9% 2.4% 6.0% 8.3%
1980 59.3% 15.6% 8.1% 2.5% 5.7% 8.8%
1985 59.8% 14.5% 8.3% 2.7% 5.5% 9.2%
1990 60.3% 13.6% 8.3% 2.8% 5.3% 9.7%
1995 60.6% 12.7% 8.4% 2.8% 5.2% 10.3%
2000 60.7% 11.9% 8.5% 2.9% 5.1% 10.9%
2005 60.6% 11.2% 8.6% 2.9% 5.1% 11.6%
2010 60.3% 10.7% 8.5% 3.0% 5.0% 12.4%


Table 4
Starting with 10 countries largest in 1950

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
China    550,771,433 658,270,094 814,622,841 983,170,638 1,145,195,229 1,269,116,737 1,341,335,152
India    371,856,500 447,844,159 553,873,890 700,058,589 873,785,449 1,053,898,107 1,224,614,327
United States    157,813,040 186,326,215 209,463,865 229,825,004 253,339,097 282,496,310 310,383,948
Russian Federation    102,702,461 119,905,701 130,391,798 138,655,363 148,243,501 146,757,517 142,958,164
Japan    82,199,470 92,500,572 103,710,287 115,914,688 122,251,184 125,720,310 126,535,920
Indonesia    74,837,310 91,946,612 118,361,740 150,820,044 184,345,939 213,395,411 239,870,937
Germany    68,376,002 72,814,899 78,169,287 78,288,577 79,098,094 82,349,027 82,302,465
Brazil    53,974,725 72,758,801 96,078,304 121,711,864 149,650,206 174,425,387 194,946,470
United Kingdom    50,616,012 52,544,356 55,645,390 56,303,011 57,214,474 58,874,117 62,035,570
Italy 46,366,767 49,519,312 53,324,772 56,221,171 56,832,330 56,986,329 60,550,848
World 2,532,229,237 3,038,412,766 3,696,186,306 4,453,007,478 5,306,425,154 6,122,770,220 6,895,889,018
10 as % of World 62% 61% 60% 59% 58% 57% 55%
China and India as % of World 36% 36% 37% 38% 38% 38% 37%
US as % of World 6% 6% 6% 5% 5% 5% 5%



Table 5
Starting with 10 countries largest in 2010


1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
China    550,771,433 658,270,094 814,622,841 983,170,638 1,145,195,229 1,269,116,737 1,341,335,152
India    371,856,500 447,844,159 553,873,890 700,058,589 873,785,449 1,053,898,107 1,224,614,327
United States    157,813,040 186,326,215 209,463,865 229,825,004 253,339,097 282,496,310 310,383,948
Indonesia    74,837,310 91,946,612 118,361,740 150,820,044 184,345,939 213,395,411 239,870,937
Brazil    53,974,725 72,758,801 96,078,304 121,711,864 149,650,206 174,425,387 194,946,470
Pakistan    37,542,380 45,920,204 59,382,651 80,492,664 111,844,679 144,522,192 173,593,383
Nigeria    37,859,746 45,926,253 57,357,275 75,543,388 97,552,057 123,688,536 158,423,182
Bangladesh    37,894,678 50,101,943 66,881,158 80,624,423 105,256,026 129,592,275 148,692,131
Russian Federation    102,702,461 119,905,701 130,391,798 138,655,363 148,243,501 146,757,517 142,958,164
Japan 82,199,470 92,500,572 103,710,287 115,914,688 122,251,184 125,720,310 126,535,920
World 2,532,229,237 3,038,412,766 3,696,186,306 4,453,007,478 5,306,425,154 6,122,770,220 6,895,889,018
10 as % of World 60% 60% 60% 60% 60% 60% 59%


All of the data used in this report are from the United Nations http://data.un.org/   They write, "All data and metadata provided on UNdata’s website are available free of charge and may be copied freely, duplicated and further distributed provided that UNdata is cited as the reference." http://data.un.org/Host.aspx?Content=UNdataUse   Thus, all charts and tables in our report may be used freely, provided the proper citation is given (Shackman et al, 2012, from data provided by UNData).  All text from this report may be used freely provided that the proper citation is given (Shackman et al. 2012).