World population to reach 9.2 billion by 2050

World population will likely reach 9.2 billion in 2050, with virtually all new growth occurring in the developing world. A UN report said the population will likely increase by 2.5 billion people over the next 43 years from the current 6.7 billion - a rise equivalent to the number of people in the world in 1950. According to the director of UN Population Division Hania Zlotnik, an important change in the new population estimate is a decrease in expected deaths from AIDS because of the rising use of anti-retroviral drugs and a downward revision of the prevalence of the disease in some countries. The new report estimates 32 million fewer deaths from AIDS during the 2005-2020 period in the 62 most affected countries, compared with the previous UN estimate in 2004.

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