The human species has passed the eight billion mark, with longer lifespans offsetting lower birth rates, but world population growth continues a long-term trend of slowing, the US Census Bureau said.
The bureau estimates the global population surpassed that figure on September 26.
The United Nations estimates that this number was reached ten months earlier, after declaring November 22, 2022 as “Eight Billion Day,” the Census Bureau noted in a statement.
The difference is because countries count people differently – or don’t count them at all. Many lack systems to record births and deaths. Some of the world’s most populous countries, such as India and Nigeria, have not conducted censuses in more than a decade, the bureau said.
While world population growth remains rapid, from six to eight billion since the turn of the millennium, the rate has slowed from doubling between 1960 and 2000.
