Changes in the world population are determined by two metrics: the number of babies born, and number of people dying. How many are born and die every year?

by Hannah Ritchie

September 11, 2019

The world population has grown rapidly, particularly over the past century: in 1900 there were fewer than 2 billion people on the planet; today there are 7.7 billion.

The change in the world population is determined by two metrics: the number of babies born, and the number of people dying.

How many are born each year?

The stacked area chart shows the number of births by world region from 1950 to 2015.

In 2015, there were approximately 140 million births – 43 million more than back in 1950

The line chart shows the same data, but also includes the UN projection until the end of the century. It is possible to switch this chart to any other country or world region in the world.

How many die each year?

The first chart shows the annual number of deaths over the same period.

In 2015 around 55 million people died. The world population therefore increased by 84 million in that year (that is an increase of 1.14%).

The line chart shows the same data, but also includes the UN projection until the end of the century. Again it is possible to switch this chart to any other country or world region in the world.

As the number of deaths approaches the number of births global population growth will come to an end

How do we expect this to change in the coming decades? What does this mean for population growth?

Population projections show that the yearly number of births will remain at around 140 million per year over the coming decades. It is then expected to slowly decline in the second-half of the century. As the world population ages, the annual number of deaths is expected to continue to increase in the coming decades until it reaches a similar annual number as global births towards the end of the century. 

As the number of births is expected to slowly fall and the number of deaths to rise the global population growth rate will continue to fall. This is when the world population will stop to increase in the future.

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