2018 how many countries in the world

For instance, the United States includes race as self-identified data that reflects a social definition rather than a biological or anthropological one. Meanwhile, other countries may use different measures of ethnic groups, such as English, German, East Indian, etc.

Throughout most of history, the world's population has been much smaller than it is now. Before the invention of agriculture, for example, the human population was estimated to be around 15 million people at most. The introduction of agriculture and the gradual movement of humanity into settled communities saw the global population increase gradually to around million by AD 0.

To give you an idea of scale, the Roman Empire, which many regard as one of the strongest empires the world has ever seen, probably contained only around 50 million people at its height; that's less than the number of people in England today.

It wasn't until the early 19th century that the world population reached its first big milestone: 1 billion people. Then, as the industrial revolution took hold and living standards improved, the rate of population growth increased considerably. Over the next hundred years, the population of the world doubled, reaching 2 billion in the late s.

The 20th century, however, is where population growth really took off, and over the past years, the planet's population has more than tripled in size. This massive increase in human population is largely due to improvements in diet, sanitation and medicine, especially compulsory vaccination against many diseases.

Most people agree that population increases will continue, but there are arguments about the rate of increase, and even a few people who believe population decreases are likely.

You can see some example trends in this graph. The United Nations has gradually been revising its predictions downwards, and now believes that the world population in will be around 9 billion.

It believes that, as the world grows steadily richer and the average family size decreases, growth will steadily slow and eventually stop. However, others believe that poverty, inequality and continued urbanization will encourage steadily increasing growth, particularly in countries in Africa and parts of Asia , where growth is already much higher than the global average. A few scientists even believe that populations will decrease.

Some believe that gradual increases in living standards will result in similar patterns to those in Western Europe , where birth rates are declining rapidly. Others believe that the current world population is unsustainable, and predict that humanity will simply not be able to produce enough food and oil to feed itself and sustain our industrial economy. Although the population of the world increases daily, population growth rate has been declining over the last century.

The annual growth rate of the world population in is around 1. Live Population:. World Population Estimator Estimate as of October 23, is:. World Population Clock. Show Source. Choose Year to Display Below: World Population History B.

Year Population Growth Rate 4,, 5,, 0. Ever been filling out an internet form, and had to choose from a surprisingly long list of countries? You were probably looking at the international standard "country code" list, formally known as ISO Lots of companies and other organizations adopt this standard list instead of spending their own time compiling one.

The standard also includes convenient two-letter codes for each country, like us for the United States, de for Germany, and jp for Japan, which you might recognize from website addresses specific to those countries. That's way more than the total number of UN member and observer countries! Well, the standard list does leave out some breakaway states not recognized by the UN, but makes up for it by listing dependent territories separately from their parent countries. In other words, the ISO list is more an answer to the question, "How many countries and territories in the world?

This means there are "country codes" not just for actual countries, but also for nearly-independent states, overseas colonies, uninhabited islands, and even Antarctica! This is important, because organizations might need an option for every place that any person can be located, and dependent territories often aren't technically part of the countries they belong to.

So there you have it! Next time someone tells you "There are countries in the world," remember that the real answer isn't so simple! This account already exists, you can try logging on with this email. You may unsubscribe at anytime. Having trouble signing in?

Contact Customer Service. Already a subscriber and need help getting access? Special limited time offer to qualified returning subscribers. Profile Notifications Sign Out. By Political Geography Now One of the most basic questions for map-lovers is, "How many countries are there in the world? Here are six of the most common answers, each correct in its own way: Sovereign States According to the UN "Country" and "nation" are casual words for what political scientists call a "sovereign state", meaning a place with its own borders and completely independent government.

The question of which places count as sovereign states can be controversial, but for starters we normally count all the member and observer countries of the United Nations UN : UN Members : UN Observer States : 2 Total : These countries mostly all accept each other as sovereign states, and they're the ones you'll see on most world maps and lists of the world's countries. Keep Reading: Create an account to get 3 free articles.

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Sign in. Subscribe Now Already a subscriber and need help getting access? Group F and Group D appear to be the toughest divisions.

Group F has Germany, the No. Group A, on the other hand, is being described as the "Group of Life" because of the lack of a dominant team.

Russia, which made it into Pot 1 because it is the host country, is not grouped with any teams in the top 20, only one team in the top 30 Uruguay , and the lowest-ranked team in the rest of the field Saudi Arabia. For you. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options.

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