U.N.: Global Population in 2050 at 9.1B

The United Nations says the global population is expected to increase by 2.6 billion people, mostly in the developing world, to 9.1 billion by 2050.

The amount of increase would be roughly equal to what was the world’s population in 1950, said Hania Zlotnik, director of the population division of the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

As to what the world population would be beyond 2050, she said, Provided that we assume most populations are going to spend about 100 years with a regime where the population is going to be decreasing, the world population is going to stabilize at about 9 billion, so it is the magic number. She told reporters at U.N. world headquarters in New York, It is going to be a strain on the world. But it seems feasible. It doesn’t seem that there’s a crisis coming.

However, Zlotnik said, If we reduce mortality and maintain essentially the same fertility (rate) for 300 years we get trillions of people. We know that that cannot happen.