November 2022 was the month the globe hit a huge milestone, 8 billion people. A number that is only predicted to continue to rise for decades to come. Some countries make up more of that number than others, China and India being the only two to host more than a billion people. Although each country develops differently, the road to that number may be different than expected.
Table of Contents
What Countries are Growing?
The Grade School Center has visualized the 8 billion people in an infographic where you can see how and what countries are growing. For example, China now has a flat growth rate, neither growing nor shrinking. While countries like Nigeria and Pakistan have growth rates of over 2%. This makes a lot of sense considering the fertility rates of these countries. China, notorious for its control of child-rearing, has an extremely low fertility rate of 1.18. Nigeria on the other hand has a fertility rate of over 5. The difference is night and day.
Another interesting correlation to be drawn is between world health. It seems that countries being in different states of their development leads to different trends. The healthier a country, the longer people live, and the fewer kids they have. It’s not a perfect trend, but it’s observable across the globe. Countries like Japan and Iceland top the charts for life expectancy and happiness. While other countries like Somalia and Chad have some of the lowest life expectancies.
What all these trends mean for the world at large, for business, and for the consumer, it’s all pretty varied. Although the population is growing, there are more labor shortages now than ever. It seems there aren’t enough people to sustain all types of lifestyles. Similarly, the global economy is not rising at the rates it used to, the population scale isn’t an economic scale.
On the other hand, people are living longer than ever. Countries are healthier than in the past and it shows in their populations. Growing countries today are also starting to seriously affect the economy. While economic growth isn’t up to par today, Sub-saharan Africa in particular has a high chance to change that. By 2060 the area is predicted to outpace both Europe and the Americas.
In Conclusion
This is really all to say that the country is growing, but it’s not nearly so simple. Each country is following its own path, and some are much more developed than others. For some countries, the issue is having more kids, and for some having fewer. No one nation is the same, but the problems all countries face as a globe are the same. Learning to reduce labor shortages, reduce poverty, and suffering, are all way, forwards. The question really is just how? There are 8 billion people on the planet and they all want to be happy.
