A recent report by the United Nations projected that the world's population will reach 9.7 billion in 2050 before topping 11.2 billion in 2100. However, it is easy to forget that some countries are not growing at all. The World Economic Forum put a list of the fastest shrinking countries together, using World Bank population data.
Even though it is technically an unincorporated U.S. territory, Puerto Rico comes first, having experienced a population drop of 1.3 percent or 47,442 people between 2013 and 2014. Latvia comes second with a 1.1 percent drop while Lithuania is in third place having experienced a 1.0% fall during the same period. A falling population can usually be attributed to emigration and/or death rates exceeding birth rates.
The Countries Shrinking Fastest Worldwide
Description
This chart shows differences between the 2013 and 2014 population in countries worldwide.
