In this Power BI desktop project, I will explore data from the Population Estimates And Projections dataset from The World Bank. This database presents population and other demographic estimates and projections from 1960 to 2050, covering more than 200 economies. It includes population data by various age groups, sex, urban/rural; fertility data; mortality data; and migration data.

There has been a major growth in the world’s population in the last half century. Global population reached 3.7 billion in 1970. By 1990, in less than two decades, it had passed 5.3 billion. In 2020, there were around 7.7 billion people in the world.

The population growth varies greately across the different regions. Since 1970, Sub-Saharan Africa has shown the the largest relative growth. By 1970, there were around 290 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa (c. 8% of the world’s population) and in 2020 it had passed 1.1 billion (c. 15% of the world’s population). During the same period, Europe & Central Asia is the region which has shown the largest decrease in its share of the world’s population (from c. 20% in 1970 to c. 12% in 2020).

The World Bank projects the world’s population to continue its major growth and reach nearly 10 billion by 2050. Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to continue show the largest relative growth. By 2050, 23% of the world’s population is projected to be Sub-Saharan African. In other words, about 1 in 4 of the world’s people will be Sub-Saharan African in 2050.