Study: World population to reach 12.3 billion by 2100

MANILA, Philippines – A newly published report reveals world population may expand between 9.6 billion and 12.3 billion by 2100.

There is an 80 percent chance that the world population would go sky-high, contrary to previously published studies indicating population to grow to up to 7.2 billion only.

It would unlikely to stop growing. The new report said that the increase will caused by high birth rates and a recent slowdown in the pace of fertility decline in Africa. Time magazine, moreover, reports that the number of people in Africa is expected to rise from 1 billion to 4 billion in the next 86 years.

On the other hand, other parts of the world will have less dramatic levels of growth, including North America and Europe. Asia is projected to peak at around five billion people in 2050 and then begin to decline.

The report  conducted  by researchers from the University of Washington and the United Nations, which was published in the journal Science, released population projections based on data until 2012 and a Bayesian probabilistic methodology.

In addition to their findings, it was also discovered that the ratio of working-age people to older people is likely to decline substantially in all countries, even those that currently have young populations.