Over 1 000 000 000 in Africa

The number of people in Africa has passed the one billion mark, the UN Population Fund says in a report.

UNPF's Executive Director Thoraya Obeid says the annual figures showed the continent's population had doubled in the last 27 years.

"Africa countries are all growing fast... because there is large number of women who have no access to planning their families," she said.

The populations of Nigeria and Uganda were growing the fastest, she said.

"It's an African phenomenon of a large growing population and a large percentage of young people in the population," she said.

In its State of the World Report, the UNPF says the world's population currently stands at about 6.8 billion.

Africa's population is estimated to reach 1.9 billion by 2050, it says.