World demographic prospects: between certainties and uncertainties

To open this “Focus”, Gilles Pison offers us an overall vision based on past developments to help us to better understand those to come. While the world’s population should continue to rise to reach 8 billion by 2023, its growth rate is decreasing. It should continue to regress until the world’s population virtually stabilises at some 11 billion people within a century. One major demographic change expected is Africa’s exploding population, which could quadruple to reach more than 4 billion in 2100