The UN says that the world’s population will reach 9.6 billion by 2050, mostly because of high birth rates in developing countries.
July 23, 2025: The most recent updates to the United Nations’ population projections, which were made public on July 11, say that this increase is mostly due to high birth rates and younger populations in large developing countries.
The birth, death, and migration (people moving in or out) of a country all play a big role in how its population changes over time. When the birth rate is higher than the death rate, the population grows because there are more people than there were before.
African countries have the highest rates of population growth in the world.
Some of the countries with the fastest-growing populations are in Africa, which might surprise some people. Countries like Niger, Angola, Benin, and Uganda are seeing their populations expand by more than 3% every year, which is very impressive. This quick increase is especially impressive because these countries are going through a lot of development and economic growth, even though Africa has had problems in the past with its natural resources.
Based on the rate of population increase, the following are the top 10 countries that are expanding the quickest in the world:
Growth Rate by CountryTokelau has a population of 2,608, which is 4.07% of the total.
Oman4.04% 5,494,690
Syria3.84% 25,620,400
Chad21,003,700 3.47%
The Central African Republic5,513,280 at 3.43%
Somalia3.4% 19,654,700
Niger3.28% 27,917,800
The Democratic Republic of the Congo3.25% 112,832,000
Mayotte3.22% 337,011
Angola3.05% 39,040,000
Send to Sheets
India is still the country with the most people in the world.
The World Population Review’s most recent numbers show that India is the most populated country in the world, with more than 1.46 billion people. With almost 1.42 billion people, China comes in second. India is forecast to keep its dominance, and its population is also expected to keep growing, reaching a peak of 1.65 billion people by about 2060.
Even if the world’s population is still growing, the rate of expansion is slowly slowing down. The world population is expected to rise at a rate of about 0.85% in 2025. This is down from 0.97% in 2020 and a bigger reduction from 1.25% in 2015.
A Long-Term Look at African Nations vs. India and China
Niger, Angola, and Uganda are African countries that have much higher percentage growth rates than India and China. However, it is unlikely that these countries would ever have more people than these two Asian giants. These African countries are growing at a greater rate than others right now, but this growth is unlikely to last forever. Long-term sustainability problems, especially those related to having enough food and land to live on, will eventually stop their population from growing. So, it’s very likely that these African countries won’t be able to catch up to India and China in terms of total population in the near future.