Off The Record
Experts Say Over A BILLION People Might Be Living On Earth… Without Anyone Knowing
It’s possible that a sizable portion of the world’s population was left out of census data, meaning that there may be over 1,000,000,000 more people in the globe than we currently know.
Even though the consequences of human extinction would be catastrophic, humans have remained the planet’s most important driving force, and the population has been steadily increasing over time.
As of right now, the world’s population is estimated to be little over 8,000,000,000, but scientists believe that figure might rise to 9 billion by 2037 and 10 billion by 2058.
But according to a recent study that was published in Nature Communications, we may already be there. It suggests that the population of rural areas in particular may be undercounted by anywhere from 53% to 84%, with over a billion people likely left out of the total.
According to the Independent, the study notes that researchers may encounter obstacles in rural areas:
“Communities in remote locations or impacted by conflict and violence are difficult to access, and census enumerators often face language barriers and resistance to participation.”
People in these areas are then officially counted as “not existing,” so they are excluded from the total population figures we usually identify with the world.
Investigating data from 307 distinct dam projects in 35 countries was a crucial component of the study. Josias Láng-Ritter and his Aalto University colleagues then compared demographic data from places where they were known to have relocated to the number of individuals who were claimed to have been resettled after being displaced by the dam.
The latter data then showed obvious discrepancies and “missing” individuals; according to NewScientist, calculations indicated that populations after resettlements were undercounted by at least 53%, with the worst-case scenarios reaching an 84% miscalculation.
“We can say that nowadays, population estimates are likely conservative accounting,” explains Láng-Ritter, “and we have reason to believe there are significantly more than these 8 billion people.”
Since census and demographic data are used to plan for transportation, health, aid, and many other things, fixing the data sets and the systemic biases against rural areas could also have a significant impact on government initiatives.
“The impacts may be quite huge, because these datasets are used for very many different kinds of actions,” emphasizes Láng-Ritter.
At its core, this study has the potential to improve things on a broader scale and not only increase an already unfathomable amount but also greatly assist rural towns and locations.
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