In demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently living. The world population was estimated to have reached 7.6 billion as of October 2017[1]. The United Nations estimates it will further increase to 11.2 billion by the year 2100.[2]
World population has experienced continuous growth since the end of the Great Famine of 1315–17 and the Black Death in 1350, when it was near 370 million.[3] The highest population growth rates – global population increases above 1.8% per year – occurred between 1955 and 1975, peaking to 2.06% between 1965 and 1970.[2] The growth rate has declined to 1.18% between 2010 and 2015 and is projected to decline to 0.13% by the year 2100.[2] Total annual births were highest in the late 1980s at about 139 million,[4] and are now expected to remain essentially constant at their 2011 level of 135 million,[5] while deaths number 56 million per year and are expected to increase to 80 million per year by 2040.[6] The median age of the world’s population was estimated to be 30.1 years in 2016, with the male median age estimated at 29.4 years and female at 30.9 years.[7]