It took mankind 50,000 years for the world's population to reach the 1 billion mark. From then on, growth skyrocketed. Since 1960, the world added 1 billion new inhabitants every ten to twenty years. However, times are changing again. Population growth, which was over 2% at the end of the 1960s, is close to 1% and will continue to decline, with a rate of 0.5% expected by the middle of this century.

We are also experiencing a major shift in the distribution of the world's population in terms of geography and development. If a few decades ago Asia was seen as the main area of population growth, this has changed radically. The number of children born each year on the Asian continent has fallen from almost 85 million in the early 1990s to 65 million in 2023. Latin America and Europe also show a decline, while North America (excluding Mexico, which is incorporated in the Latin American group) has remained fairly stable. The exception to this trend is Africa, which has shown steady growth over the past 75 years, as can be seen in the infographic by Visual Capitalist.

While population aging has displaced population growth as the main point of concern, both phenomena have profound repercussions on a multitude of aspects that determine well-being and economic progress. Among them, gauging the challenges and opportunities that population growth in Africa will have for the world will be one of the keys to the global economy in the coming years.