The world’s population is projected to reach a new milestone – 8 billion people – on November 15, 2022. China and India are the first and second most populous countries, each with some 1.4 billion people. But India will overtake China to become the most populous country sometime in 2023.
Projections show the world will have 9 billion inhabitants by 2037 and 10 billion by 2057. Scientists then expect the world’s population to level off around 10 to 12 billion in the year 2100.
There have been many studies on Earth’s carrying capacity, which is the maximum population size an environment can sustain indefinitely. These studies conclude with an enormously wide range of numbers, but the majority of the studies estimate Earth’s carrying capacity at 8 billion.
