Top 10 African countries with the largest population mid-way into 2023

With over 140 million infants born each year, the world's population is still growing. The world population is expected to reach 8.5 billion people by 2030, 9.7 billion by 2050, and 10.4 billion by 2080, where it will stay until 2100, according to the United Nations' 2022 World Population Prospects report.

The pace of population growth has been gradually slowing for decades, even though the world's population is projected to keep growing until around 2100. For the first time since 1950, the pace of population growth on the planet dipped below 1% in 2020. The population growth rate maintains a downward trend that started in the 1970s when it was calculated in five-year intervals.

More than half of the world's predicted population expansion between now and 2050 will come from just eight nations, five of which are African: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Tanzania.

Africa currently stands as the fastest-growing economy in the world, boasting the youngest population of any region. As a result, the population growth prediction stated above juxtaposes numerous economic benefits with problems associated with poor management of population growth. 

Africa’s status as a developing continent presents the opportunity to tap into its rapidly expanding population or stand the risk of running into massive socio-economic challenges.

According to the most recent United Nations projections, Africa's current population is 1,463,378,937 as of Tuesday, August 1, 2023. Africa's population is 17.89% of the total world population.

While the largest population growth between 2022 to 2050 is projected to come from the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, there are countries on the continent that currently have a substantial population. Below are 10 of the most populated countries in Africa, according to WorldPopulationReview.