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WORLD POPULATION TO 2300

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5<br />

4<br />

3<br />

2<br />

1<br />

0<br />

Figure 8. Average annual rate of change of the world population and<br />

total fertility, estimates and three scenarios: 1950-<strong>2300</strong><br />

-1<br />

1950 2000 2050 2100 2150 2200 2250 <strong>2300</strong><br />

Forty years later, world population growth reaches<br />

its low point of -0.15 per cent. Population growth<br />

takes somewhat longer after fertility bottoms out<br />

to reach its minimum in the high and low scenarios,<br />

but the sequence is similar.<br />

A comparison with the previous long-range projection<br />

indicates the importance of fertility assumptions.<br />

That projection was based on the 1998<br />

Revision and took population up to 2150. World<br />

population growth up to 2050 in the 2002 Revision<br />

is strikingly similar to growth in the 1998<br />

Revision, as noted earlier. However, the longrange<br />

projections beyond 2050 are quite different,<br />

with that based on the 1998 Revision showing<br />

steady growth (figure 9). The reason is fairly<br />

straightforward: fertility was assumed, in the earlier<br />

long-range projections, to stay only briefly<br />

below replacement, returning essentially to replacement<br />

a decade beyond 2050 rather than, as in<br />

the current projection, staying clearly below for a<br />

century after 2050. Many countries in developing<br />

regions, in the earlier projection, never fall below<br />

replacement fertility, but in the current projection<br />

they do. The assumption, therefore, that fertility<br />

will fall to low levels for a fairly long period, not<br />

just in more developed but also in less developed<br />

regions, is a distinctive characteristic of the current<br />

long-range projections.<br />

Mortality levels play a role in long-range population<br />

growth, helping account for the temporary<br />

decline and being responsible for change once<br />

fertility has settled at replacement. The role of<br />

mortality, however, is not evident from trends in<br />

life expectancy. World life expectancy is projected<br />

to grow along a smooth path but at a slowing<br />

pace. It is expected to reach 74.8 years in<br />

2050—after having risen about 20 years in 1950-<br />

2000 and rising further about 10 years in 2000-<br />

2050. Gains beyond 2050 diminish: for 2050-<br />

2100, 8 years, and then for subsequent 50-year<br />

periods 5, 4, 3, and finally 2 years for 2250-<strong>2300</strong>.<br />

By the time rising life expectancy becomes the<br />

dominant and indeed the sole influence on<br />

growth—in 2225—it will be at 92.8 years and<br />

rising slowly, leading to an annual population<br />

growth rate over the next half century of only<br />

0.06 per cent.<br />

There is no indication from these trends that<br />

mortality change could produce fluctuations in<br />

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs/Population Division 15<br />

World Population to <strong>2300</strong><br />

High<br />

Medium<br />

Low<br />

Total fertility<br />

Population growth rate (percent)

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