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Annual Population Growth by Region

How much did different world regions gain in population over the past year?

November 10, 2017

1. The world’s population grew by 82.6 million during the twelve months from July 2016 through the end of June 2017.

2. In other words, the world population currently increases by adding approximately the equivalent of the total population of Germany each year.

3. For comparison, Germany is the world’s 17th most populous country.

4. The population of the world’s developed regions increased by only about 3.1 million – or 3.8% of the total increase — on balance over the past year.

5. By contrast, the population in developing regions rose by about 79.5 million.

6. These numbers do not represent births, but the number of births (or immigrant arrivals) exceeding deaths in each region – i.e., the net population increase.

7. The population of Asia grew by 42 million over the year, or about the size of Ukraine’s population.

8. Meanwhile, Africa’s population grew by 30.4 million – which is greater than the overall populations of Australia and New Zealand put together.

9. Europe’s population grew by only 359,000 from July 2016 through June 2017, a change which is smaller than the population of the Bahamas.

10. Latin America and the Caribbean grew by 6.5 million over the period, while Northern America grew by 2.7 million, mostly in the United States.

Source: The Globalist Research Center, UN Population Division

Takeaways

The world’s population grew by 82.6 million during the 12 months from July 2016 through the end of June 2017.

Latin America and the Caribbean grew by 6.5 million from July 2016 through June 2017.