As the world population clocked 8 billion on Tuesday, a girl born in Manila is being considered the symbolic eight billionth person in the world.
Vinice Mabansag was born at Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital at 1.29 am (local time) and ever since photos of the baby have gone viral.
The United Nations have described the situation as a milestone in human development. For the first time in human history 8 billion people are breathing on the surface of the world.
“The milestone is an occasion to celebrate diversity and advancements while considering humanity’s shared responsibility for the planet,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
The UN attributes the growth to human development, with people living longer thanks to improvements in public health, nutrition, personal hygiene, and medicine.
In the current world population 2022, the two most populous regions were both in Asia: Eastern and South-Eastern Asia with 2.3 billion people and Central and Southern Asia with 2.1 billion. China and India, with more than 1.4 billion each, accounted for most of the population in these two regions.
With the recent birth rate recorded in India, it is said to surpass China as the most populated country in 2023.
The current population is more than three times higher than the 2.5 billion global headcounts in 1950.
However, after a peak in the early 1960s, the world’s population growth rate has decelerated dramatically, Rachel Snow of the UN Population Fund told AFP.
Annual growth has fallen from a high of 2.1 percent between 1962 and 1965 to below 1 percent in 2020.
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That could potentially fall further to around 0.5 percent by 2050 due to a continued decline in fertility rates, the United Nations projects.
The UN projects the population to continue growing to about 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and peaking around 10.4 billion in the 2080s.
The world population last clocked a billion in 1800, the second billion was achieved in only 130 years (1930), the third billion in 30 years (1960), the fourth billion in 15 years (1974), and the fifth billion in only 13 years (1987). On October 12th, 1999, the sixth billionth person was born, and the seven billionth baby was born in 2011.
