World Population Prospects The 2017 Revision

The United Nations population estimates and projections form a comprehensive set of demographic data to assess population trends at the global, regional and national levels. They are used in the calculation of many of the key development indicators commonly used by the United Nations system, including for more than one third of the indicators used to monitor progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The 2019 revision of the World Population Prospects is the twenty-sixth edition of the official United Nations population estimates and projections, which have been prepared since 1951 by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The 2019 revision presents population estimates from 1950 until the present for 235 countries or areas, which have been developed through country-specific analyses of historical demographic trends. It builds on previous revisions by incorporating additional results from the 2010 and 2020 rounds of national population censuses as well as information from vital registration and recent nationally representative household sample surveys. The 2019 revision also presents population projections to the year 2100 that reflect a range of plausible outcomes at the global, regional and country levels. These Highlights summarise key population trends described by the estimates and projections presented in World Population Prospects 2019.

The United Nations population estimates and projections form a comprehensive set of demographic data to assess population trends at the global, regional and national levels.

The United Nations population estimates and projections form a comprehensive set of demographic data to assess population trends at the global, regional and national levels. The 2017 Revision of World Population Prospects represents the latest global set of demographic estimates and projections prepared by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat. It constitutes the twenty-fifth round of global population estimates and projections produced by the Population Division since 1951. This volume of the 2017 Revision presents the demographic profiles of the official United Nations population estimates and projections. The demographic profiles display key demographic indicators for selected periods or dates between 1950-2100, for the world, development groups, regions, subregions and countries or areas with more than 90,000 inhabitants in 2017. In all tables and figures, values for 1950-2015 are estimates and those thereafter are projections (medium variant). For each country or area, the volume also provides a brief description of the data sources and demographic methods that were used to derive the base-year estimates

The report presents findings from the 2018 revision of World Urbanization Prospects, which contains the latest estimates of the urban and rural populations or areas from 1950 to 2018 and projections to 2050, as well as estimates of population size from 1950 to 2018 and projections to 2030 for all urban agglomerations with 300,000 inhabitants or more in 2018. The world urban population is at an all-time high, and the share of urban dwellers, is projected to represent two thirds of the global population in 2050. Continued urbanization will bring new opportunities and challenges for sustainable development.

The United Nations population estimates and projections form a comprehensive set of demographic data to assess population trends at the global, regional and national levels. The 2017 Revision of World Population Prospects represents the latest global set of demographic estimates and projections prepared by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat. It constitutes the twenty-fifth round of global population estimates and projections produced by the Population Division since 1951. This volume of the 2017 Revision presents the comprehensive tables of the official United Nations population estimates and projections, displaying key demographic indicators for selected periods or dates from 1950 to 2100, for the world, development groups, regions, subregions, and countries or areas with more than 90,000 inhabitants in 2017. For countries or areas with fewer than 90,000 inhabitants in 2017, only figures related to population size and growth are provided. In all data tables, figures for 1950-2015 are estimates and those thereafter are projections. The projections are presented for the medium, high, low and constant-fertility variants.