According to the latest statement by UNFPA Executive Director Kanem, quoted by the British newspaper The Guardian on the 18th, absolute population numbers should not be a reason for panic, and unnecessary panic will only distract the international community from taking positive and effective measures to deal with it.

According to Kanem, countries should respond effectively to demographic changes, especially by providing support and assistance to women, children, and marginalized groups.

UN data show that while the world's population will reach 8 billion, the global population growth rate has fallen from just over 2 percent at its peak in the 1960s to less than 1 percent today.

In fact, to achieve natural population replacement, each woman should have an average of 2.1 children, but currently, about 60 percent of the world's population is located in countries with birth rates below these natural population replacement rates.

By 2050, half of the world's population growth will be concentrated in eight countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Tanzania.

Among them, India is expected to overtake China next year to become the world's most populous country. Kanem noted that the international community should respond effectively to the aging crisis, including by receiving immigrants. However, the birth rate of new immigrants may be higher than the birth rate of the original inhabitants of the country, to prevent this situation is malicious "speculation", which will lead to xenophobia, causing social tensions.

The World Population Prospects 2022 report, published by the World Population Prospects Institute, projects that the world's population will reach 8 billion on November 15 of this year. Many are anxious about the milestone figure against the backdrop of the world's multiple crisis challenges, fearing that the world is overpopulated and under-resourced. However, UN officials say there is no need to panic about it.