By Favour Nnabugwu
Africa’s current population is said to be at 1,463,378,937 as of August 1, 2023 with the continent population put at 17.89 percent of the total world population, according to the most recent United Nations projections
While the largest population growth between 2022 to 2050 is projected to come from the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, there are countries on the continent that currently have a substantial population.
More than half of the world’s predicted population expansion between now and 2050 will come from just eight nations, five of which are African: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania while the three other are Pakistan, the Philippines, and India.
The world population is expected to reach 8.5 billion people by 2030, 9.7 billion by 2050, and 10.4 billion by 2080, where it will stay until 2100, according to the United Nations’ 2022 World Population Prospects report.
With over 140 million infants born each year, the world’s population is still growing, the pace of population growth has been gradually slowing for decades, even though the world’s population is projected to keep growing until around 2100.
For the first time since 1950, the pace of population growth on the planet dipped below 1 percent in 2020. The population growth rate maintains a downward trend that started in the 1970s when it was calculated in five-year intervals.
Africa currently stands as the fastest-growing economy in the world, boasting the youngest population of any region. As a result, the population growth prediction stated above juxtaposes numerous economic benefits with problems associated with poor management of population growth.
Africa’s status as a developing continent presents the opportunity to tap into its rapidly expanding population or stand the risk of running into massive socio-economic challenges.
