Population Reference Bureau released the 2009 World Population Data Sheet suggesting the world is likely to reach 7 billion in the latter half of 2011, just 12 years after reaching 6 billion in 1999. The bulk of growth is expected in the world’s poorest nations.

In 2009, world population stood at 6.8 billion, up about 83 million from 2008 … [t]he less developed countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean are projected to increase by just under 50 percent in the 41 years between now and 2050, and the poorest of these are projected to double in population size over that period. But this scenario assumes that fertility in less developed countries will decline smoothly to the low levels observed in today’s more developed countries: about 1.8 children per woman. For fertility to fall to those low levels, many factors are key, including significant increases in the use of family planning in many less developed countries.