Where are all the young people in the world?

More than 6.7 billion people live on our planet.

It took the world thousands of years to become home to a billion people, but only 12 years to grow from five billion (1987) to six billion (1999). Today, the world’s population is still growing by 78 million a year. The number of people living in the world’s 50 poorest countries will likely more than double by 2050.

Almost 30 percent of the world’s inhabitants today are under the age of 15. Most live in developing countries with uncertain access to education, medical care and jobs. More than 15 million of these young people have lost one or both parents to AIDS.

© CIDA PHOTO: Roger Lemoyne

Did you know? If the world were a village of 100 people, this is what it would be like! Almost 1.5 billion people in the world today are between the ages of 10 and 25. More than half of all youth—about 525 million young people—survive on less than $2 a day. Source: UNFPA, Framework for Action on Adolescents and Youth, 2007 Worldwide, the average number of children per woman has decreased. In developing countries, fertility levels fell from 6.0 children per woman (1965-1970) to 2.7 children per women (2005-2010). Source: United Nations, World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision World population is expected to reach 9.2 billion in 2050. Source: United Nations, World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision

© CIDA PHOTO: GREG KINCH © CIDA PHOTO: PIERRE ST.JACQUES

To find out more about population issues, visit the UNFPA website or the United Nations Population Division website

Mapping young people around the world		World population by region
You may notice some inconsistencies when comparing the statistics presented here with those in the reference links. Although we update this site regularly, linked sites may be using older or newer data.