The Earth’s population now sits at around 7.2 billion.
Half of those people, 3.6 billion, live in just a half-dozen countries, according to the United Nations.
China remains the world’s most populous nation at 1.4 billion people, followed by India with 1.3 billion, according to UN figures. The United States, Indonesia, Brazil, and Pakistan combined all have just under 1 billion people. See the map above.
According to Pew Research Center, the world’s population grew at a rapid pace from 1950 to 2010. Globally, the population tripled, and the US population doubled.
But growth is expected to slow down over the next 40 years as the global population ages.