With an increase of 75 million people in 2023, world population tops 8 billion

Dec. 28 (UPI) -- The world's population will stand at more than 8 billion on New Year's Day, having added more than 75 million people this year, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau Thursday.

The numbers show the worldwide population grew at a rate of just under 1% and that at the start of the new year, 4.3 people are expected to be born and two are projected to die every second worldwide.

The United States accounted for more than half of the overall worldwide growth at 0.53%. The country added 1.7 million people and the U.S. population is projected to reach 335.8 million people on Monday, Jan. 1.

While accounting for half of the worldwide population growth, the United States is on pace to record its slowest-growing decade in the nation's history in the 2020s if it maintains its current rate of less than 4% growth between 2020 and 2030, according to William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution.

The slowest-growing decade on record followed the Great Depression in the 1930s, when the United States grew at a rate of 7.3% over a 10-year period.

"Of course growth may tick up a bit as we leave the pandemic years. But it would still be difficult to get to 7.3%," Frey said.

The Census Bureau numbers project one U.S. birth every 9 seconds, while one person is expected to die every 9.5 seconds in 2024. While the natural growth rate has slowed in the United States, Frey predicts the country's overall growth rate will not remain dramatically lower than it has historically been, thanks to net migration, which is anticipated to add one person to the U.S. population every 28.3 seconds. The combination of natural births, deaths and international migration will boost the country's population by one person every 24.2 seconds, the figures show.

Separate from the Census Bureau figures, the United Nations has estimated the global population surpassed 8 billion more than a year ago, declaring November 22, 2022, as the "Day of 8 Billion," the Census Bureau pointed out in a statement.

The U.N. predicts the global population will grow to 9.8 billion by 2050.