1.22.2008 5:43 AM

Envisioning World Population Growth

Cartograms Compare World Population in 1900, 2000 and 2050

By Dan Shapley

The world is changing like never before. The world's population, just 1.65 billion in 1900, stands now at 6.64 billion today. It is expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050.

The human population has, of course, been growing and growing fast for generations. And concern about overpopulation depleting resources has, in some cases, been overblown in the past. But this generation will witness some remarkable changes. And the natural resources of the world will continue to be depleted at unsustainable rates without innovations that improve reusing, recycling and the like.

Soon, if not already, the world will cross a threshold never before seen, when more than half of the world's population lives in urban areas. By 2050, experts believe, India will overtake China as the most populous nation. Africa, after having been decimated by the slave trade and colonialism, will see its Sub-Saharan region grow by as much as 2.6 times, reaching 2 billion people by 2050.

Populations in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, East Timor, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger and Uganda – some of the world's poorest nations – will triple.

But these figures only tell the story in one way. Take a look at these cartograms, courtesy of Worldmapper.org. Instead of being bound by geographic sizes, these maps display nations scaled according to their population. Also view these maps as a cartogram flipbook.

World Population, 1900