Therefore said He unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth labourers into His harvest. Luke 10:2 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. John 4:35 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20a Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15b For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 1 John 4:14 |
For most up-to-date estimate, see U.S. and World Population Clock, United States Census Bureau.
The United Nations Population Division estimates that in 1 AD, there were 300 million people in the world; in 1250, 400 million; in 1500, 500 million. According to UN estimates, the world population reached 1 billion in 1804; rose to 2 billion 123 years later, in 1927; to 3 billion 33 years after that, in 1960; to 4 billion in 1974; to 5 billion in 1987; to 6 billion in 1999; and to 7 billion in 2011. The UN put the world population in mid-2020 at about 7.8 billion. It projects that the population will reach 8 billion by 2023.2
The U.N. expects that between 2020 and 2050, nine countries will account for more than half the increase in the world population (in descending order): India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Indonesia, Egypt, and the U.S.
"To give a point of reference for the magnitude of one billion, it would require forty thousand trips around the world to equal one billion miles."4
| Asia | 4,539,569,435 |
| Africa | 1,339,491,577 |
| Europe (incl. Russia) | 749,332,680 |
| Latin America* | 644,336,252 |
| North America** | 370,467,900 |
| Oceania (incl. Australia) | 41,094,539 |
| Antarctica | no indigenous inhabitants |
| *Includes South America, Central America and the Caribbean. **Includes the United States and Canada. Note: Asia is home to about 60 percent of the global population. China and India account for more than half of Asia's total population. |
|
| Birth Rate: | Death Rate: |
| 18 births/1,000 population | 8 deaths/1,000 population |
| 135 million births each year | 56.8 million people die each year |
| 368,600 births each day | 155,500 people die each day |
| 15,360 births each hour | 6480 people die each hour |
| 259 births each minute | 108 people die each minute |
| 4.3 births each second | 1.8 people die each second |
| 1.95 billion people age 0-14 years (25%) |
| 1.18 billion people age 15-24 years (15%) |
| 3.12 billion people age 25-54 years (41%) |
| 699 million people age 55-64 years (9%) |
| 729 million people are 65 years and over (10%) |
There are approximately 228 inhabited countries and territories in the world. China is the most populous nation with 1/5 of the world's people. About half the world's people live in the first six largest countries listed below.
| China | 1,394,015,977 |
| India | 1,326,093,247 |
| United States | 332,639,102 |
| Indonesia | 267,026,366 |
| Pakistan | 233,500,636 |
| Nigeria | 214,028,302 |
| Brazil | 211,715,973 |
| Bangladesh | 162,650,853 |
| Russia | 141,722,205 |
| Mexico | 128,649,565 |
| Urban Area | Population* |
|---|---|
| 1. Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan | 37,977,000 |
| 2. Jakarta, Indonesia | 34,540,000 |
| 3. Delhi, India | 29,617,000 |
| 4. Mumbai (Bombay), India | 23,355,000 |
| 5. Manila, Philippines | 23,088,000 |
| 6. Shanghai, China | 22,120,000 |
| 7. São Paulo, Brazil | 22,046,000 |
| 8. Seoul-Incheon, South Korea | 21,794,000 |
| 9. Mexico City, Mexico | 20,996,000 |
| 10. Guangzhou-Foshan, China | 20,902,000 |
| 11. New York City, U.S. | 20,870,000 |
| 12. Beijing (Peking), China | 19,433,000 |
| 13. Cairo, Egypt | 19,372,000 |
| 14. Kolkata, India | 17,560,000 |
| 15. Moscow, Russia | 17,125,000 |
| 16. Bangkok, Thailand | 17,066,000 |
| 17. Buenos Aires, Argentina | 16,157,000 |
| 18. Shenzhen, China | 15,929,000 |
| 19. Dhaka, Bangladesh | 15,443,000 |
| 20. Los Angeles, United States | 15,402,000 |
Note: Population figures for the world's largest cities differ from one statistical source to another because of the different concepts used (i.e. urban area, urban agglomerations, metropolitan areas, etc.)
| Country | Population 0-14 Years of Age (%) |
|---|---|
| Afghanistan | 41 |
| Angola | 48 |
| Benin | 46 |
| Burkina Faso | 44 |
| Burundi | 44 |
| Cameroon | 42 |
| Central African Republic | 40 |
| Chad | 47 |
| Congo, Democratic Republic of the | 46 |
| Congo, Republic of the | 42 |
| Ethiopia | 40 |
| Gaza Strip | 43 |
| Guinea | 41 |
| Guinea-Bissau | 43 |
| Liberia | 43 |
| Malawi | 46 |
| Mali | 48 |
| Mozambique | 46 |
| Niger | 51 |
| Nigeria | 42 |
| Rwanda | 40 |
| Sao Tome and Principe | 40 |
| Senegal | 40 |
| Sierra Leone | 41 |
| Somalia | 42 |
| South Sudan | 42 |
| Sudan | 42 |
| Tanzania | 43 |
| Timor-Leste | 40 |
| Togo | 40 |
| Uganda | 48 |
| Zambia | 46 |
| Country | Life Expectancy (yrs.) |
|---|---|
| Afghanistan | 52.8 |
| Angola | 59.3 |
| Central African Republic | 54.2 |
| Chad | 58.3 |
| Eswatini (Swaziland) | 58.6 |
| Lesotho | 53 |
| Mozambique | 55.9 |
| Niger | 59.3 |
| Sierra Leone | 59.8 |
| Somalia | 54 |
| South Sudan | 55.5 |
| Zambia | 53.6 |
| Country | Muslim (%) |
|---|---|
| Afghanistan | 99.7 |
| Algeria | 99 (official; predominantly Sunni) |
| Azerbaijan | 97 (predominantly Shia) |
| Bahrain | 74 |
| Bangladesh | 89 |
| Brunei | 79 (official) |
| Djibouti | 94 |
| Egypt | 90 (predominantly Sunni) |
| Gambia, The | 96 |
| Gaza Strip | 98-99 (predominantly Sunni) |
| Guinea | 89 |
| Indonesia | 87 |
| Iran | 99 (official) |
| Iraq | 95-98 (official) |
| Jordan | 97 (official; predominantly Sunni) |
| Kazakhstan | 70 (majority Sunni) |
| Kosovo | 96 |
| Kuwait | 75 (official) |
| Kyrgyzstan | 90 (majority Sunni) |
| Libya | 97 (official; Sunni) |
| Malaysia** | 61 (official) |
| Maldives | Sunni Muslim (official) |
| Mali | 94 |
| Mauritania | 100 (official) |
| Morocco | 99 (official; Sunni) |
| Niger | 99 |
| Nigeria* | 54 |
| Oman | 86 |
| Pakistan | 96 (official) |
| Saudi Arabia | 100 (official) |
| Senegal | 96 |
| Sierra Leone | 79 |
| Somalia | Sunni Muslim (official) |
| Sudan | Sunni Muslim |
| Syria | 87 (official) |
| Tajikistan | 98 (predominantly Sunni) |
| Tunisia | 99 (official, Sunni) |
| Turkey | 99.8 |
| Turkmenistan | 89 |
| United Arab Emirates | 76 (official) |
| Uzbekistan | 88 (mostly Sunni) |
| West Bank | 80-85 |
| Western Sahara | Muslim |
| Yemen | 99 (official) |
*5th Largest Muslim Population in World; **21st Largest Muslim Population in World.
| Rank | Country | Muslim Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indonesia | 218,754,000 |
| 2 | Pakistan | 204,547,000 |
| 3 | India | 202,265,000 |
| 4 | Bangladesh | 152,837,000 |
| 5 | Nigeria | 97,954,000 |
| 6 | Egypt | 94,478,000 |
| 7 | Iran | 83,101,000 |
| 8 | Turkey | 83,072,000 |
| 9 | Algeria | 43,185,000 |
| 10 | Iraq | 41,649,000 |
| 11 | Sudan | 40,969,000 |
| 12 | Ethiopia | 39,747,000 |
| 13 | Afghanistan | 38,846,000 |
| 14 | Morocco | 37,380,000 |
| 15 | Urbekistan | 32,415,000 |
| 16 | Saudi Arabia | 31,945,000 |
| 17 | Yemen | 30,663,000 |
| 18 | China | 25,987,000 |
| 19 | Niger | 24,162,000 |
| 20 | Tanzania | 20,044,000 |
| 21 | Malaysia | 19,222,000 |
| 22 | Mali | 18,565,000 |
| 23 | Syria | 18,544,000 |
| 24 | Russia | 18,219,000 |
| 25 | Somalia | 16,565,000 |
Source: World Christian Database and World Religion Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, July 2020).
| Country | Roman Catholic (%) |
|---|---|
| Argentina | 92% (less than 20% practicing) |
| Bolivia | 77 |
| Brazil | 65 |
| Burundi | 62 |
| Chile | 67 |
| Colombia | 79 |
| Costa Rica | 72 |
| Croatia | 86 |
| Ecuador | 74 |
| France | 63-66 |
| Guam | 85 |
| Ireland | 78 |
| Italy | 80 (approximate) |
| Lithuania | 77 |
| Luxembourg | 70 |
| Malta | >90 |
| Mexico | 83 |
| Panama | 85 |
| Paraguay | 90 |
| Peru | 60 |
| Philippines | 81 |
| Poland | 86 |
| Portugal | 81 |
| Puerto Rico | 85 |
| Slovakia | 62 |
| Spain | 69 |
| Timor-Leste | 98 |
| Venezuela | 96 (nominally) |
| Christians | 2,545,579,000 |
| Roman Catholics | 1,250,319,000 |
| Protestants | 593,660,000 |
| Independents* | 396,991,000 |
| Orthodox | 293,599,000 |
| Muslims** | 1,926,115,000 |
| Hindus | 1,073,619,000 |
| Buddhists | 550,493,000 |
| Chinese folk-religionists | 471,103,000 |
| Sikhs | 28,538,000 |
| Jews | 14,838,000 |
*This term denotes members of Christian churches and networks that regard
themselves as postdenominationalist and neo-apostolic and thus independent
of historic, mainstream, organized, institutionalized, confessional, denominationalist
Christianity.
**Sunnis—1,717,048,000; Shiites—192,513,000.
1. There are an estimated 7,117 living languages spoken in the world.
2. About 40% of the world's people speak one of the eight most common languages:
Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish, English, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Portuguese,
Russian.
3. "Approximately 80% of the languages are spoken by less than 100,000
people; about 150 languages are spoken by less then 10 people; communities
that are isolated from each other in mountainous regions often develop multiple
languages; Papua New Guinea, for example, boasts about 840 separate languages."
4. Approximately 2,300 languages are spoken in Asia, 2,140 in Africa, 1,310
in the Pacific, 1,060 in the Americas, and 290 in Europe (2020).
5. "Asia has the most indigenous languages, closely followed by Africa. Combined, they account for nearly 2/3 of the world's languages."
Sources: The World Factbook (CIA); Ethnologue: Languages of the
World, 23rd ed.; The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2021.
1. The
World Factbook (CIA).
2. The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2021, ©2021.
3. Demographia World Urban Areas. 16th edition. June,
2020. www.demographia.com
4. Biblical Missions: History, Principles, Practice by
Roy F. Dearmore. Garland, Tex.: Rodgers Baptist Church, ©1997.
5. U.S. and World Population
Clock, United States Census Bureau.