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World Population Prospects 2019 Methodology of the United Nations Population Estimates and Projections

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World Population Prospects 2019 Methodology of the United Nations Population Estimates and Projections World Population Prospects 2019 Methodology of the United Nations population estimates and projections This page is intentionally left blank ST/ESA/SER.A/425 Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division World Population Prospects 2019 Methodology of the United Nations population estimates and projections United Nations New York, 2019 The Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat is a vital interface between global policies in the economic, social and environmental spheres and national action. The Department works in three main interlinked areas: (i) it compiles, generates and analyses a wide range of economic, social and environmental data and information on which States Members of the United Nations draw to review common problems and take stock of policy options; (ii) it facilitates the negotiations of Member States in many intergovernmental bodies on joint courses of action to address ongoing or emerging global challenges; and (iii) it advises interested Governments on the ways and means of translating policy frameworks developed in United Nations conferences and summits into programmes at the country level and, through technical assistance, helps build national capacities. The Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs provides the international community with timely and accessible population data and analysis of population trends and development outcomes for all countries and areas of the world. To this end, the Division undertakes regular studies of population size and characteristics and of all three components of population change (fertility, mortality and migration). Founded in 1946, the Population Division provides substantive support on population and development issues to the United Nations General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the Commission on Population and Development. It also leads or participates in various interagency coordination mechanisms of the United Nations system. The work of the Division also contributes to strengthening the capacity of Member States to monitor population trends and to address current and emerging population issues. Notes The designations employed in this report and the material presented in it do not imply the expression of any opinions whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The term “country” as used in this report also refers, as appropriate, to territories or areas. This report is available in electronic format on the Division’s website at www.unpopulation.org. For further information about this report, please contact the Office of the Director, Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, New York, 10017, USA, by fax: 1 212 963 2147 or by e-mail at [email protected]. Suggested citation: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2019). World Population Prospects 2019: Methodology of the United Nations population estimates and projections (ST/ESA/SER.A/425). Official symbols of United Nations documents are composed of capital letters combined with numbers, as illustrated in the above citation. Front cover photo credit: Unsplash/Mauro Mora Published by the United Nations Copyright © 2019 by United Nations, made available under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 3.0 IGO) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Population Prospects 2019: Methodology of the United Nations population estimates and projections PREFACE This report provides a detailed overview of the methodology used to produce the 2019 revision of the official United Nations population estimates and projections, prepared by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat. The 2019 revision is the twenty-sixth round of global population estimates and projections produced by the Population Division since 1951. The report first describes the way that country estimates have been prepared and then explains the approaches and assumptions that were used to project fertility, mortality and international migration up to the year 2100. The report also provides an overview of the variants used in generating the different sets of population projections as well as information on the recently developed probabilistic projection methods, which depict the uncertainty of future demographic trends, with results presented for all countries and areas of the world up to the year 2100. The Population Division has continued to refine the methods used for these probabilistic projections. It should be noted, however, that making projections to 2100 is subject to a high degree of uncertainty, especially at the country level. In that regard, users are encouraged to focus not only on the medium variant, which corresponds to the median of several thousand projected trajectories of specific demographic components, but also on the associated prediction intervals, which provide an assessment of the uncertainty inherent in such projections. Detailed information on the 80 and 95 per cent uncertainty bounds for different components at the country level and major geographic aggregates is available on the website of the Population Division, www.unpopulation.org. The 2019 revision of the World Population Prospects was prepared by a team led by Patrick Gerland, including Kirill Andreev, Lina Bassarsky, Guiomar Bay, Helena Cruz Castanheira, Victor Gaigbe-Togbe, Danan Gu, Sara Hertog, Nan Li, Igor Ribeiro, Thomas Spoorenberg, Philipp Ueffing, Mark Wheldon, Lubov Zeifman and benefited of the support of Bela Hovy, Kyaw Kyaw Lay, Frank Swiaczny, Guangyu Zhang. The team is grateful to other colleagues in the Population Division for the support they have provided, including to John Wilmoth for reviewing this report. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs/Population Division iii This page is intentionally left blank. World Population Prospects 2019: Methodology of the United Nations population estimates and projections CONTENTS PREFACE .................................................................................................................................................... iii EXPLANATORY NOTES ......................................................................................................................... vii INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 1 I. The preparation of population estimates .............................................................................................. 3 A. Data availability ............................................................................................................................... 3 B. General analytical strategy and major steps for producing population estimates ........................... 6 C. Addressing challenges arising from data quality issues ................................................................... 9 II. THE PREPARATION OF POPULATION PROJECTIONS ............................................................ 14 A. Levels and trends of future fertility: convergence towards low fertility ........................................ 14 B. Projection of the age patterns of fertility ....................................................................................... 21 C. Mortality assumptions: increasing life expectancy for all countries .............................................. 22 D. Assumptions on the age patterns of mortality ................................................................................ 30 E. International migration assumptions .............................................................................................. 34 F. Nine projection variants ................................................................................................................. 36 G. Population projection method ........................................................................................................ 37 H. Aggregation procedures ................................................................................................................. 38 I. Interpolation procedures ................................................................................................................ 38 J. Summary of main updates introduced in the 2019 revision ........................................................... 39 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................................ 43 TABLES II.1. Countries for which adjustments were made to the default mortality projection trajectory in the 2019 revision ............................................................................................................................. 29 II.2. HIV prevalence rates among adults aged 15-49 years in countries for which explicit modelling of HIV/AIDS was employed in the 2019 revision (percentages) ........................................................ 33 II.3. Projection variants in terms of assumptions for fertility, mortality ..................................................... 37 FIGURES I.1. Process used to ensure intercensal consistency between demographic components and the total population .............................................................................................................................................
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