A United Nations (UN) report reveals Portugal is on track to have the world’s “third oldest population” by 2030.
In just 15 years, the country’s average age will be 50.2.
Only Japan (51.5) and Italy (50.8) expect to have older populations.
If calculations are correct, Portugal’s population will drop from today’s 10 million to 9.8 million by 2030, 9.2 million by 2050 and just 7.4 million by 2100.
The report claims Europe is going down a similar road, with continents like Africa and Asia redressing the balance in spades.
By 2022, India is expected to have the world’s largest population (1.4 billion), taking over from China, while Nigeria – ominously struggling with extremist groups like Boko Haram – is also expecting a huge population boom.
In the relatively close future, most of the world’s population will be found in countries like India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Uganda, warns the report “where it is increasingly hard to eradicate poverty and inequality, to combat hunger and malnutrition, and to expand educational enrolment and health systems”.
Lack of birth control is one of the main causes for these increasing populations.
Further data shows the world’s current population of 7.3 billion will reach 8.5 billion by 2030, 9.7 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100.
“World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision” was launched on Wednesday (July 29) by the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
It puts recent news of a much-awaited baby boom in Portugal (click here “Oldie” Portugal registers new baby boom) into grim perspective.
