World population is set to hit eight billion next week

The United Nations has announced the date when they expect the population of the world to hit eight billion, and it's really, really soon.

Turning the clocks back by a couple of hundred years and you'll reach the point where the planet had hit a major milestone by topping a billion in terms of population for the first time.

For those wanting the exact date it's supposed to be a week on Tuesday, otherwise known as 15 November.

Another interesting tidbit of information they announced is that next year they expect China to fall behind India as the most populous nation on the planet.

Both countries are home to over a billion people, the only two hold hold that distinction, but India's population growth is set to carry it into top spot by 2023.

While a growing population might mean the world is full of plenty more people to make friends with, and in our modern world there's all sorts of new ways to connect, a growing population also poses some major dangers.

Every new person in the world is someone new to consume more resources and the world is struggling to keep up.

The latest info does provide some hopeful news on that front, as the data suggests that global population is growing at the slowest rate since the 1950s.

Still, with so many people in the world we're expected to be halfway to nine billion by 2030 and the global population is predicted to peak during the 2080s (if we make it that far) at about 10.4 billion.

The UN report also warned that the proportion of the world's population over 65 is set to grow from a 10 percent chunk to about 16 percent by 2050.

Countries with ageing populations will need to consider how they're going to care for their people.