World Population Day has been observed on July 11 every year since 1990. In other words, “Happy People Day.” The U.S. Census Bureau’s World Population Clock provides a real-time estimate of the global population as well as an indication of how fast it is growing.
The Bureau estimates the number of people in the world by combining past population growth statistics with data for individual countries and areas from its International Database (IDB).
The world population reached 8 billion in 2023, and the IDB projects it will reach 8.2 billion in July 2026, 9 billion by 2039, 10 billion by 2060, and peak at 10.6 billion in 2092 before declining.
The Census Bureau develops these estimates by analyzing available population, fertility, mortality and migration data. For most countries, adjustments to the data are necessary to correct for errors. Some available data may be several years old, so the population data used for our World Population Clock are projections from those earlier estimates. As new data become available, estimates and projections may change.
The United States is among the world’s five most populous countries with an estimated 342,620,143 people as of July 1, 2026. The other four most populous countries are India, China, Indonesia and Pakistan – all in Asia.