The 2006 revision of U.N. population estimates and projections made public earlier this year showed that the world's population, now 6.67 billion, will reach 9.19 billion in 2050. Calling attention to the aging of the world population, the United Nations said that in the more developed regions, the percentage of people aged 60 or over in the overall population will increase from 20.1 percent in 2005 to 32.6 percent in 2050, and that the corresponding percentage in the less developed regions will rise from a mere 8.1 percent to 20.1 percent.
Now, a report of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) says that, for the first time in history, more than half the world population, or 3.3 billion people, will be living in urban areas in 2008. By 2030, the urban population is expected to swell to almost 5 billion or 60 percent of the world population.
The report — "State of World Population 2007" — predicts an unprecedented scale of urban growth in the developing world. In 1950, its urban population numbered 309 million. In 2030, it will reach 3.9 billion, an almost 13-fold increase. The increase will be particularly sharper in Africa and Asia, where the urban population will double between 2000 and 2030.