Picture used for illustrative purposes.

The world’s population is expected to grow by more than 2 billion people in the next decades and peak in the 2080s at around 10.3 billion, a major shift from a decade ago, a new report by the United Nations said on Thursday.

The report — released on World Population Day — said the global population is then expected to decline to around 10.2 billion by the end of the century.

"However, changes in global population are uneven, and the demographic landscape is evolving, with rapid population growth in some places and rapid ageing in others, making reliable population data more important than ever,” said the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

As of 2024, population size has peaked in 63 countries and areas, including China, Germany, Japan and the Russian Federation, and the total population of this group is projected to decline by 14 percent over the next 30 years.

For another 48 countries and areas, including Brazil, Iran, Türkiye and Vietnam, the population is projected to peak between 2025 and 2054. In the remaining 126 countries, including India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and the United States of America, the population is expected to increase through 2054 and, potentially, to peak in the second half of the century or later.

In nine countries of this last group, including Angola, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger and Somalia, very rapid growth is projected, with their total population doubling between 2024 and 2054.

By the late 2070s, the number of people aged 65 or older is projected to surpass the number of children (under age 18), while the number of people at ages 80 and higher is projected to be larger than the number of infants (under age 1) already by the mid-2030s.

Even in countries that are still growing rapidly and have relatively youthful populations, the number of people aged 65 or older is expected to rise over the next 30 years.

WAM