Population Trends – Africa Catching Up

In January the global population reached 8 billion but China’s population statistics showed a drop in the total population for the first time since the Great Famine of 1963. India now becomes the most populous country. However, as we wrote previously, India’s population growth is slowing too. In China the average age is now 39, in India 29, but in Africa it is 19. To take an example, Tanzania’s  population has increased by 37% over the past decade to almost 63m according to the latest UN figures, and is expected to grow between 2% and 3% a year until 2050. Dar es Salaam, which is heading for megacity status, typifies a region growing 3 times faster than the global average. Tanzania will be one of 8 countries responsible for more than half of the increase in global population over the next 3 decades: 5 of those countries will be in Africa. The continent is growing 3 times faster than the global average and by 2070 it will surpass Asia.