PRB’s 2011 Population Data Sheet Released

On July 28, 2011, the Population Reference Bureau released its annual population data sheet.  Widely regarded as the latest, most accurate non-government report on demographic trends, this year’s data sheet projects that world population is on track to reach 9.6 billion by July of 2050.  [PRB’s 2050 projection is slightly higher than the 9.3 billion projection contained in the UN’s latest population projection (2010 Population Revision released in May of this year)].  PRB’s 2011 report indicates a continued decline in global fertility rates, but it bumped up the estimated “total fertility rate’ for some countries, like Burundi and Zimbabwe.

 In releasing the report, PRB noted that, “Today, the world is adding the largest numbers to its population than in any time in history. Despite the fact that the annual population growth rate has declined to 1.2 percent per year, world population grows by about 83 million annually. If the same growth rate had applied in 1950, only 30 million people annually would have been added to the world total. While declines in birth rates have been virtually universal across countries, the pattern of decline has been very variable. In some countries, birth rates have fallen below two children; birth rates in other countries have decreased to medium levels or have barely begun to decrease.”

http://www.prb.org/Publications/Datasheets/2011/world-population-data-sheet/population-bulletin.aspx