1.

Every 2 or 3 years, Population & Societies publishes a special issue called ‘The Population of the World’, presenting an overall picture of the situation across the globe.¹ The world population was approximately 8 billion in 2022. It has risen eightfold over the last 200 years and may well reach 10 billion by the end of the 21st century.

The data shown in the central data sheet concern all geopolitical entities with a population of 150,000 or more, along with a few others. Sovereign states are listed along with non-sovereign territories, including France’s overseas departments, territories, regions, and collectivities. Countries and territorial entities are listed following the United Nations system of classification by region and continent.

The demographic indicators are the same as those used in earlier editions: land area, mid-2022 population estimate, birth and death rates, infant mortality rate, total fertility rate, percentage of population under 15 and over 65, male and female life expectancy at birth, and gross national income per capita adjusted for purchasing power parity (GNI PPP) in 2021. Some indicators are projections, as vital statistics and survey data are not yet available for the year 2022.

Eighteen smaller tables classify countries or geopolitical entities according to different indicators, following a downward scale. In Tables 1–7, a world total is given, and a line separates the countries which together account for more than half of that total. For instance, the seven most populated countries (China, India, United States, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Brazil) represent a total population of 4.1 billion, or more than half of the world population, estimated at 8 billion. In Table 10, countries are ranked by mortality rate. With 9 deaths per 1,000 population in 2022, Burkina Faso ranks higher than Japan, with 13 per 1,000. This may seem surprising, but the relatively low number of deaths in Burkina Faso reflects the fact that its population is very young, with a very low proportion of old people, while the opposite is true in Japan. Life expectancy, which takes account of the population age distribution, gives a more accurate picture of mortality differentials (see Table 12). Japan ranks first under this criterion, with the world’s highest life expectancy (85 years), while Burkina Faso is near the bottom of the list (60 years). In Table 17, countries are classified according to the proportion of working-age persons aged 15–64 in the total population. This proportion is especially high in the small Persian Gulf states, which have large populations of immigrant workers living without their families, and in countries where fertility has fallen sharply to very low levels (Russia and Spain). Persons of working age represent a larger proportion of the total population in countries of the Global South where fertility has also declined rapidly in recent years (South Korea, China, and Iran). Their population pyramids have narrowed at the base, while their summit is still very small. Their shape will change, however, as the proportion of persons aged 15–64 decreases due to population ageing.