Here are Some Mind-Blowing Demographic Stats

Okay, I’m outingmyself as a thorough nerd with this post, but I was completely fascinated by this World Bank analysis of UN populationstats and projections through the year 2100.Almost all four of the charts confounded my basic expectations for what theworld’s demographics will look like in about a century’s time.

To start with thefirst surprise, the world’s population will continue to grow, but the rate ofgrowth is expected to slow considerably starting in what should be my lifetime.Also, by the year 2100, 80% of the world will live in Asia or Africa; to makethat happen in the near-term, demographers expect a population boom ofextraordinary proportions in Africa in the next 50 years. Surprisingly – yetanother surprise! – America is expected to rank among the world’s most populouscountries, #5, by 2050. We’re one of the very few affluent nations that willalso be very populated. (To give you a sense of the company we’ll be keeping,India is expected to become the #1 most populous country in 2050, followed byNigeria at #2.)

I find demographyinteresting for so many reasons. It underpins how societies fundamentally work,which products and services will truly matter, which business opportunitieswill flourish or fade, and just plain how our planet will feel to humans wholive through, or after, these extraordinary changes. Enjoy!

BeGood,

Don Montanaro

CEO, TradeKing Group

www.tradeking.com

Follow Don on Twitter and hone your skills at TradeKing All-Stars. You can also follow TradeKing on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or YouTube.

[image: Statistics by Simon Cunningham on Flickr]

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