VOA新闻杂志2024--Growth Slows, but World’s Population Moves Past 8 Billion to Start 2024

Growth Slows, but World’s Population Moves Past 8 Billion to Start 2024

A U.S. government agency¹ says the world's population grew by about 75 million people in 2023.

The U.S. Census² Bureau³ notes the worldwide growth rate in the past year was just under 1 percent. The agency also said there will be 4.3 births and two deaths around the world every second in 2024.

The United States' growth rate is about half that of the world overall⁴. On January 1, 2024, the U.S. had a population of 335.8 million, the Census Bureau said.

The numbers look large. But growth rates around the world have been slowing. The United Nations notes the world population will reach 9 billion in about 15 years. That is three years longer than it took to move from 7 billion to 8 billion. The world population reached 8 billion people in November 2022.

If the current rate continues, the 2020s are likely to be the slowest growing decade in American history, the Census Bureau said.

William Frey is a population expert at the Brookings Institution, a research group based in Washington, D.C. He said the growth rate in the U.S. from 2020 to 2030 will be under 4 percent. The slowest-growing decade recorded in the U.S. took place in the 1930s, after the long economic depression. The growth rate for that decade was 7.3 percent.

Frey said the predicted growth rate could "tick⁵ up" in the next few years. But he said it is not likely to be higher than 7.3 percent.

Immigration is the reason why the U.S. will not suffer a population loss in 2024. There should be one birth every nine seconds and one death every 9.5 seconds. But there will likely be two new American immigrants⁶ every minute in 2024. As a result, every 24.2 seconds, the U.S. population will increase by one person.

The two most populous⁷ countries are India and China. India moved ahead of China at some point in 2023. The two countries both have more than 1.4 billion people. By 2050, China's population is expected to decrease by 2.7 percent.

Words in This Story

depression –n. a long period of time when a country's economy contracts instead of grows

tick up (expression) –v. to increase by a small amount

1 agency   

n.经办；代理；代理处

参考例句：

• This disease is spread through the agency of insects.这种疾病是通过昆虫媒介传播的。
• He spoke in the person of Xinhua News Agency.他代表新华社讲话。

2 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

3 bureau   

n.提供或收集消息的机构；局，司，处；署

参考例句：

• The weather bureau makes daily reports on weather conditions.气象局每天报告天气状况。
• The Tourist Bureau arranged everything for our journey to Rome.旅游局已为我们去罗马旅行准备了一切。

4 overall   

n.工作服，工装裤；全面的，全体的

参考例句：

• The shop assistant was wearing a white overall.那店员穿着白色的工作服。
• How much will it cost overall?一共多少钱？

5 tick   

vi.(指钟表等)滴答滴答地响

参考例句：

• The clock goes'tick-tock,tick-tock'.时钟发出滴答滴答的声音。
• They could hear the regular tick of the clock.他们能听见时钟有规律的滴答声。

6 immigrants   

n.移民( immigrant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Illegal immigrants were given the opportunity to regularize their position. 非法移民得到了使其身份合法化的机会。
• Immigrants from all over the world populate this city. 这个城市里生活着来自世界各地的移民。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 populous   

adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的

参考例句：

• London is the most populous area of Britain.伦敦是英国人口最稠密的地区。
• China is the most populous developing country in the world.中国是世界上人口最多的发展中国家。