Humanity passed 8 billion people in 2022
On 15 November 2022 the UN marked the day the world's population reached eight billion.
On 15 November 2022, the United Nations designated the symbolic “Day of Eight Billion” — the date its demographers estimated the world’s population reached 8 billion people.
The milestone capped an extraordinary surge. Global population took until around 1804 to reach its first billion, hit 7 billion in 2011, and then added the eighth billion in just over a decade. The UN attributes this growth to longer lifespans from gains in public health, nutrition and medicine, alongside high fertility in some regions.
It took about 12 years to grow from 7 to 8 billion — but reaching 9 billion is expected to take roughly 15 years, a sign that growth is slowing.
The UN projects the population will keep rising more gently, peaking at around 10.4 billion in the 2080s before levelling off. The era of rapid expansion that defined the 20th century is, demographically, drawing to a close.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
