By BILL SANDERSON
June 20, 2008
The world's population is expected to hit 7 billion in 2012 then grow more slowly in the following decades, the US Census Bureau said yesterday.
Right now, the planet has 6.6 billion souls, a number growing at a rate of 1.17 percent a year, the census says. But growth is steadily slowing and projected to drop to 0.51 percent annually by 2050, when the population will hit 9.5 billion.
