Author and Page information by Anup Shah
This Page Last Updated Sunday, September 02, 2001
This page: http://www.globalissues.org/article/199/population-numbers.
To print all information e.g. expanded side notes, shows alternative links, use the print version: http://www.globalissues.org/print/article/199 The human population of the planet is estimated to now have passed 6 billion people. This can be seen as a success story (as the previous link mentions), due to improved health care and reduced infant mortality while expanding life spans. However, a common concern is that as the population continues to increase, it will place more strain on the environment, on nations’ ability to provide, economies to grow and society to flourish.
This web page has the following sub-sections:
1. Population Numbers
2. Overpopulation or not? Who do we believe?
3. Assumptions and frameworks to explain population growth
1. Malthusian perspectives
2. Demographic Transition
4. What affects population growths and declines, anyway?
1. Gender empowerment
2. Economics and poverty
3. Are increasing populations a cause of problems, or effects of others?
Population Numbers
The United Nations Population Fund estimate the population will rise to around 9.3 billion by 2050:
World population reached 6.1 billion in mid-2000 and is currently growing at an annual rate of 1.2 per cent, or 77 million people per year. Six countries account for half of this annual growth: India for 21 per cent; China for 12 per cent; Pakistan for 5 per cent; Nigeria for 4 per cent; Bangladesh for 4 per cent, and Indonesia for 3 per cent. By 2050, world population is expected to be between 7.9 billion (low variant) and 10.9 billion (high variant), with the medium variant producing 9.3 billion.
— World Population Prospects, The 2000 Revision Highlights, United Nations Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 28 February 2001, p.5
Population densities
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