DemographyThe UN revises down its population forecasts

THE UNITED NATIONS is the world’s most important watcher of human tides. Its demographers have a good record of predicting global population change, although they have made mistakes about individual countries. So it is worth paying attention when the UN revises its figures, as it does every few years. The latest bulletin is especially surprising.

Recent revisions have sent the projected global population upwards. The one released on June 17th cuts it back. The UN now thinks the world will contain a little over 9.7bn people in 2050 and just under 10.9bn in 2100. The first figure is 37m lower than the UN forecast two years ago. The latter is 309m lower—almost an America’s worth of people revised away.