The number of people 60 years of age and older may nearly triple to two billion by 2050, a UN report said today.
The 2006 revision of World Population Prospectsby the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division predicts the global population will swell by 2.5 billion from the current 6.7 billion during the next 43 years, and that those over 60 will account for nearly a quarter of the expected 9.2 billion global population
"While the population at the global level is on track to surpass nine billion by 2050 and hence continues to increase, that of the more developed regions is hardly changing and will age very markedly," the report predicted.
Most of the population growth and youth in the world is expected to come from poorer nations, the report said.
A combination of people living longer and having fewer children would nearly double the number of people over 60 years of age from the current 245 million to 406 million in 2050.
The report said the prevailing trend of people not having enough babies to replace people dying would continue in the developed countries, while fertility in the least developed nations would decline but still remain higher than the rest of the world.
Despite immigration barriers, international migration from poor to rich nations is expected to make up for the shortage in the labour force in the developing world, the report said.
Nevertheless, the populations in 46 countries - including Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, most of the former Soviet Union states and several small island states - are expected to be lower in 2050 than what they are now.
The report found that India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, the United States, Bangladesh and China are forecast to account for half the world's projected 2.5 billion population increase by 2050.