How many people die and how many are born each year?
Changes in the world population are determined by two metrics: the number of babies born and the number of people dying.
The world population has grown rapidly, particularly over the past century: in 1900, there were fewer than 2 billion people on the planet, and in 2024, there were around 8.2 billion.
Two metrics determine the change in the world population: the number of babies born and the number of people dying.
How many babies are born each year?
The first chart shows the annual number of births since 1950 and includes the projections made by the United Nations until the end of the century. You can switch this chart to any other country or world region.
132 million babies were born in 2024.
How many people die each year?
This second chart shows the annual number of deaths since 1950 and includes the UN projections until the end of the century. Again, it is possible to switch this chart to any other country or world region.
62 million people died in 2024.
How is the world population changing?
Combining these 132 million births and 62 million deaths, the world population increased by 70 million people in 2024 — a relative increase of 0.86%.
As the number of deaths approaches the number of births, global population growth will end
How do we expect this to change in the coming decades? What does this mean for population growth?
Population projections suggest annual births will remain around 135 million in the next two decades before declining slowly in the second half of the century.
As the world population ages, the annual number of deaths is expected to continue increasing in the coming decades until it reaches a similar number as annual births, at which point the world population will stop increasing.
The annual number of deaths is then expected to surpass the annual number of births. This is when the world population will start decreasing.
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Population Growth
Explore global and country data on population growth, demography, and how this is changing.
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Hannah Ritchie and Edouard Mathieu (2023) - “How many people die and how many are born each year?” Published online at OurWorldinData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/births-and-deaths' [Online Resource]BibTeX citation
@article{owid-births-and-deaths,
author = {Hannah Ritchie and Edouard Mathieu},
title = {How many people die and how many are born each year?},
journal = {Our World in Data},
year = {2023},
note = {https://ourworldindata.org/births-and-deaths}
}
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