Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

The United Nations Population Division has prepared global population estimates and projections since 1951. The 2008 Revision of the World Population Prospects (WPP) provides a broad range of demographic indicators for all countries of the world, all development groups, and major geographical regions - covering the period from 1950 to 2050. This paper outlines the basic steps in preparing the population estimates for the World Population Prospects. There are still a significant number of countries where demographic information is incomplete, outdated, seriously distorted or almost completely lacking. The paper describes some of the challenges in deriving consistent and plausible demographic estimates for countries with highly deficient or unreliable empirical data. It also provides an overview of demographic data availability and data quality for all countries of the world for the period since 1950.