The world’s population will reach 8 billion people on Tuesday, according to the United Nations.
In a statement, the UN said the figure meant that 1 billion people had been added to the global population in just 12 years.
Such high growth is due to the increase in human lifespan owing to improvements in public health, nutrition, personal hygiene and medicine. It is also the result of high fertility rates in some countries, the UN said.
Middle-income countries, mostly in Asia, accounted for most of the growth over the past decade, gaining some 700 million people since 2011. India added about 180 million people, and is set to surpass China as the world’s most populous nation next year.
However, the population explosion witnessed in the past few decades will ease in this century. The UN projects the global population will peak at around 10.4 billion people in the 2080s and remain at that level until 2100.
Most of the 2.4 billion people to be added before the global population peaks will be born in sub-Saharan Africa.
