What is the global population now 2018?

Author: secure urban travel backpack designer Sarah Giblin 

We track everything - from the steps we take to the amount of coffee the Dutch drink (it’s a lot) - so let's get to grip with the big numbers like how many people there are on earth. As well as walking 10,000 steps and drinking coffee, we are building a world of megacities because the population is growing.

As you can see in my next blogs Life and death impact of global population growth and 9 billion people on earth: what does that mean for me? building this world so it works in the future is one of our greatest challenges.

Here are the facts as of July 2018:

How many people are now on earth?

There are currently 7.6 billion people on the planet. That’s quite a jump since 2009 when the global population was a mere 6 billion. 

What is the current rate of growth of the global population?

The rate at which the world's population is growing is 1.02%. Whilst global population continues to grow, the rate at which it is growing has slowed. World population growth peaked in 1962 at 2.1%. That doesn’t sound much, but that growth rates like that took us from a total of 1.65 billion on the planet in 1900 to 7.4 billion in 2015. 

How many people will there be on earth in 2100?

The expected population of the planet is about 11.2 billion by the year 2100. The population of the earth is still increasing and isn't set to stop any time soon. 

How much of the global population lives in cities?

55% of the population lives in cities. In 1950 less than 30% of the global population lived in cities. For the first time in 2009 the number of people living in urban areas equalled the number in rural. It was a crossing point. The number of people living in urban spaces around the world is projected to reach nearly 70% by 2050.     

What is a megacity?

The definition of megacity is an urban area, metropolitan area or urban agglomeration with more than 10 million people. To put that into context, that's one city with at least double the population of the entire country of Norway. Currently, the world's largest cities have more than 30 million people living in them: Tokyo, Jakarta and Shanghai. 

The numbers are changing all the time dependant on global and local birth rates, life expectancy, war, disease and medical advances. Knowing how many people are doing what gives us a better idea of what on earth is going on, what's coming next and how that impacts us. 

I'm Sarah Giblin. I design secure backpacks called RiutBag for urban city travellers. The development of cities, their growth and how we feel in them is fundamental to how I design for you. I left my job and funded the RiutBag on Kickstarter, often referred to as an anti-theft backpack, to enable travellers to use new products designed for urban life, built to reduce stress, minimise loss and theft and to lower our suspicion of others. As cities grow, new challenges arise. We can adapt our behaviours, mindset and products to still feel at home in the world's most incredible cities of the future. 

Sources: 

https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth

http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/inclusive-cities

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megacity

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