Planet Earth’s nine billion souls

The world’s population will be about nine billion by 2300, the United Nations forecast in a new report yesterday.

But the UN Population Division said a small shift in fertility levels could have an enormous impact on the population of planet Earth, which is now 6.3 billion. The nine billion estimate is based on the two-child family, but as little as one-quarter of a child less or one-quarter of a child more per family would result in world populations in 2300 ranging from 2.3 billion to 36.4 billion, it said.

‘High fertility rates cannot continue indefinitely as they yield extremely large populations in the developing world,’ said Joseph Chamie, director of the Population Division. The projections are ‘groundbreaking’ because they look so far into the future.