Eight billion people, mostly in cities
Population triples in seventy years, and humanity becomes majority urban.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 73 years
- Known to
- ± 5 years
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
World population rises from about 2.5 billion in 1950 to 8 billion in 2022, driven by falling death rates rather than rising birth rates. Fertility then falls sharply almost everywhere — most countries are now below replacement — and growth is projected to end this century. In 2007 the majority of people lived in cities for the first time, and the shift continues at roughly a million people a week.