ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s population is expected to climb to 403 million by2050, a United Nations (UN) report released Monday said.
The earth’s population is expected to rise to 9.7 billion in 2050 from 7.7billion today, according to the United Nations Department of Economic andSocial Affairs’ “World Population Prospects” report.
The study paints a picture of a future in which a handful of countries seetheir populaces surge as life expectancy lengthens while the global growthrate slows amid declining fertility rates.
By 2050, more than half of the world’s population growth will beconcentrated in just nine countries: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, theDemocratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Indonesia, Egypt and theUnited States
“The populations of both Pakistan and Nigeria more than doubled in sizebetween 1990 and 2019, with Pakistan moving up in rank from the 8th to the5th position and Nigeria from the 10th to the 7th position,” said thereport.
Meanwhile the world’s most-populous country China will see its populationdrop by 2.2 per cent, or around 31.4 million, between 2019 and 2050.
All told, 27 countries or territories have experienced a reduction of atleast one per cent in the size of their populations since 2010 due to lowlevels of fertility.
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The report also says deaths are outpacing new births in Belarus, Estonia,Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine, but thatpopulation loss will be offset by an inflow of migrants.
The overall global fertility rate, which declined from 3.2 births per-womanin 1990 to 2.5 in 2019, is expected to fall further to 2.2 in 2050.
That’s close to the minimum of 2.1 births needed to ensure the replacementof generations and avoid long-term population decline in the absence ofmigration, according to the United Nations.
The report also projects growing life expectancy generally, including inpoor countries where it is now seven years less than the global average.
Global average life expectancy should reach 77.1 years in 2050 against 72.6years currently, the report says. In 1990, the average life expectancy was64.2 years.
