World Population Tops 7 Billion!

United Nations (UN) offi cials said Halloween would be special this year. Not because of vampires, werewolves or zombie cheerleaders, but because the world population reached 7 billion people!

Gathering up and analyzing population DATA from around the globe, the UN Population Division carefully tracks the world’s growing population. UN experts look at birthrates, death rates and even where people are moving to.

Symbolically, three newborns were offi cially dubbed the 7 billionth baby! Nargis, a girl, was born in India on Halloween. There’s also Danica, who was born a bit earlier in the Phillipines. And there’s, Alexander, who was born in Russia. How many is 7 billion? Just counting to a billion would take you about 30 years—now multiply that by seven!

For the past few decades, the world population has been growing at a pretty steady rate. A billion more people call Earth home about every dozen years. (FYI: it was way back in 1800 when our planet grew to a population of 1 billion. Today, China has a population of 1.3 billion, and India’s population is at 1.2 billion!) Worldwide, about 255 babies are born every minute while about 106 people die per minute.

But as our planet becomes more crowded, experts expect our population growth to slow. Their current estimates have us reaching 8 billion people in about 13 years and just over 9 billion by 2050. They say the fastest growing population will be in Africa.

The UN tracks world population to help countries plan better. With 7 billion people, will there be enough food and natural resources? How much air pollution and garbage will all these people generate? What about housing, energy, healthcare and transportation? And will a more crowded world be harder hit by things like drought, heat waves, fl ooding or epidemics?