Number of births per year

Around 140 million babies are born every year in the world. That’s more than four births every second of every day. More than half of all births take place in Asia with 25 million births in India and 16 million births in China alone every year.

Fertility rates

The fertility rate is the number of babies born for each female. The average fertility rate varies greatly from over 7 babies per woman in Niger, Africa to 1.2 babies in countries such as Portugal and South Korea. An average fertility of roughly 2.1 would keep the global population constant. But the average fertility is 2.5 meaning the world population is growing.

Global birth rates

The birth rate is the number of live births a year per 1,000 of a population. The global average birth rate is around 18 but there are huge differences between countries, regions and continents. In a number of African countries there are over 40 births for every 1000 people in a year while for many European countries the number is less than 10.

Birth rates are going down

Average global birth rates have been going down constantly since 1950 and are expected to continue this trend until 2050. In 1950 the average birth rate was 37 while in 2050 it is expected to be around 13.

Life expectancy at birth for men and women

Worldwide, the average life expectancy at birth was 68 years and 4 months for males and 72 years and 8 months for females meaning that women on average live 4 years and 4 months longer than men.

Huge differences between world regions

Japan has the highest average life expectancy with 83.7 years. Sierra Leone has the lowest with 50.1 years.

Development of life expectancy at birth

In prehistoric times life expectancy at birth has been estimated to around 33 years. And this did not not change much until quite recently. The 1900 world average life expectancy was 31 years. By 1950 the global average age at death had increased to 48 years and by 2014 to 71.5 years. 

The future

The Danish professor Kaare Christensen, Southern University of Denmark predicts that in the future every second Danish woman will live to be 100 years. According to the professor, the first humans to reach 150 years of age have probably also already been born. 

The more radical scenarios

Even more incredibly, the English gerontologist Aubrey De Grey believes that the first person to live for 1,000 years will be born in the next two decades - or may already have been born. Aubrey De Grey is the chief scientist of a foundation dedicated to longevity research and believes that a 'cure' for ageing is achievable within his lifetime (he is born in 1963).

Controlling the ageing process is not completely science fiction

Some species can actually live forever - at least theoretically. American lobsters (Homarus americanus) are considered biological immortals meaning that the cells of these lobsters don't age in a normal way. They can theoretically live forever because getting older does not increase the probability of dying.

Eternal life?

The first "immortal" human cells have actually been identified. But there is a long way from immortal cells to immortal human beings and there’s a lot of disagreement in the scientific community on the prospects of eternal life. Some researchers like Aubrey De Grey consider it possible while others say there’s no way humans will be able to live forever. In any case, average life expectancy is very likely to increase adding further to the challenge of an overpopulated world.