How has the world's population grown since 1960?

The world had 8.22 billion people in 2025, more than 2.7 times the 3.02 billion of 1960. It passed 8 billion in 2023. Figures are mid-year estimates from the United Nations, which revises them as new censuses come in.

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Key facts

Measure: People. Written from the data below.

  • The latest figure, for 2025, is 8.22B.
  • That is 2.7 times the 1960 figure, 3.02B.
  • It is the highest in the data, which go back to 1960.
  • The lowest was 3.02B in 1960.

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How to read this chart

Each point is the number of people alive in the world in the middle of that year, estimated by the United Nations. The axis starts at zero, so the height of the line shows the true size. Look at how steep the line is to see how fast the population grew.

Questions to discuss

  1. Judging from the chart, about how many years did it take the world to add its most recent billion people?
  2. Is the line getting steeper or flatter in recent years? What does that tell you about the growth rate?
  3. These numbers are estimates that the UN revises. Why is it hard to count every person on Earth?

Source and date

Source
World Bank, World Development Indicators: Population, total
License
CC BY 4.0 (credit the World Bank)
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “How has the world's population grown since 1960?” Chart. Data: World Bank, World Development Indicators: Population, total, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL (data as of December 31, 2025). https://chart.ly/charts/world-population (accessed October 15, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly.

Year People
1960 3,021,512,598
1961 3,062,768,116
1962 3,117,372,187
1963 3,184,063,049
1964 3,251,249,170
1965 3,318,979,339
1966 3,389,042,165
1967 3,458,932,230
1968 3,530,576,858
1969 3,604,694,154
1970 3,680,493,750
1971 3,758,515,396
1972 3,834,345,191
1973 3,910,964,219
1974 3,987,186,772
1975 4,061,959,945
1976 4,135,644,231
1977 4,208,840,894
1978 4,283,309,396
1979 4,359,930,896
1980 4,437,473,406
1981 4,516,792,587
1982 4,599,385,851
1983 4,682,734,714
1984 4,765,813,206
1985 4,850,494,238
1986 4,937,459,951
1987 5,026,770,385
1988 5,116,898,810
1989 5,207,378,374
1990 5,298,962,018
1991 5,388,203,305
1992 5,476,822,930
1993 5,564,459,142
1994 5,650,534,421
1995 5,736,205,135
1996 5,822,327,903
1997 5,908,180,322
1998 5,993,730,786
1999 6,078,069,822
2000 6,161,528,496
2001 6,244,739,668
2002 6,327,171,255
2003 6,409,352,386
2004 6,492,354,627
2005 6,575,410,029
2006 6,659,536,021
2007 6,744,049,498
2008 6,830,080,867
2009 6,916,168,196
2010 7,000,860,073
2011 7,086,704,141
2012 7,176,482,165
2013 7,265,404,737
2014 7,353,532,223
2015 7,441,084,771
2016 7,528,221,579
2017 7,613,788,655
2018 7,696,159,728
2019 7,777,162,476
2020 7,853,863,139
2021 7,919,567,995
2022 7,988,550,201
2023 8,062,923,417
2024 8,140,897,523
2025 8,215,424,893

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