New projections from the United Nations indicate that there could be 11.2 billion people on the planet by the end of the century, a huge increase from the 7.3 billion that live on Earth today — and it could have major ramifications for how we live.

A total of just nine countries will account for much of that population growth through 2050: India, Pakistan, and Indonesia in Asia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Nigeria in Africa, and the United States, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution report.

The population in the United States will blast off from 322 million today to 450 million by 2100, and India is expected to pass China in the 2020s.

Meanwhile populations in 11 countries will offset much of that growth by 2050, most of them in Eastern Europe, which will decline by about 15 percent.

And Japan is set to lose about a third of its population by 2100 due to its aging population.

Africa is a young continent that is on the rise population-wise. The average woman has five or more children in 19 countries, and therefore the population of the continent could quadruple by the end of the century. Nigeria is exploding in particular. It already has the seventh largest population in the world, and it would be the third largest by 2050, and have a larger population than the United States. But the major concern is economic growth: can it keep pace with that incredible growth to provide for the people?

In any event, the projections indicate that in just a few decades, the world is likely to look very different from the one we see today.