4.1.1. World Distribution of Population

According to World Population Prospects: 2015, the world population reached 7.3 billion as of mid-2015. Sixty per cent of the global population lives in Asia (4.4 billion), 16 per cent in Africa (1.2billion), 10 per cent in Europe (738 million), 9 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean (634 million),and the remaining 5 per cent in Northern America (358 million) and Oceania (39 million). China (1.4 billion) and India (1.3 billion) remain the two largest countries of the world, both with more than 1 billion people, representing 19 and 18 per cent of the world’s population, respectively.

2013 World population map: http://www.prb.org

In 2015, 50.4 per cent of the world’s population is male and 49.6 per cent is female. The median age of the global population, that is, the age at which half the population is older and half is younger, is 29.6 years. About one-quarter (26 per cent) of the world’s people is under 15 years of age, 62 per cent are aged 15-59 years, and 12 per cent are 60 or over.