The map below is a collection of satellite images that illustrate a mosaic view of our world. Let’s look at some important information about the population of our world.

Image of a satellite view of earth.

Source: The World, Central Intelligence Agency


Here are some statistics about the population of our world:

World Population
6,928,198,253 (July 2011 est.)

Age Structure
0-14 years: 26.3% (male 944,987,919/female 884,268,378)
15-64 years: 65.9% (male 2,234,860,865/female 2,187,838,153)
65 years and over: 7.9% (male 227,164,176/female 289,048,221) (2011 est.)

Median Age
total: 28.4 years
male: 27.7 years
female: 29 years (2009 est.)

Population Growth Rate
1.092% (2011 est.)

Birth Rate
19.15 births/1,000 population (2011 est.)

Death Rate
8.12 deaths/1,000 population (July 2011 est.)

Statistics provided by Central Intelligence Agency (as of 2011)

In this lesson, you will explore the factors that impact the birth rate and death rate of different countries. You will look at the definitions of these two terms and find out why the rates vary so much from country to country.

Scroll over the terms below to learn more about birth rates and death rates.

BIRTH RATE
DEATH RATE

Interactive exercise. Assistance may be required. View the factors below to see their impact on the birth rate and death rate of a country.

Now continue through the lesson to understand WHY these changes occur.

Sources of images used for this section as they appear, from top to bottom: