Population Growth Steady in the Face of a Changing
Climate
Children
take refuge in a cyclone shelter in
Bangladesh/BBC World Service Bangladesh Boat
The world's population
surpassed 6.8 billion in early 2009, with no significant
slowing in the pace of growth in recent years. Estimates
by the United Nations Population Division indicate that
humanity has been consistently gaining more than 79
million people--a population almost the size of
Germany's--each year since 1999.
Indicators including
decreased assistance for family planning services,
fertility levels well above replacement levels in many
countries, and improvements in life expectancy for
people living with HIV point to a human population that
is growing somewhat more rapidly than demographers had
expected--pointing to uncertainty in the commonly cited
U.N. projection of 9.1 billion by 2050. One variable not
taken into account in population projections is the
impact of global climate change, which will likely most
adversely affect people in developing countries.
According to the latest Vital Signs Update snapshot
of population worldwide:
- More than 95 percent of
population growth is occurring in developing
countries, especially in Africa and Asia, regions
that account for more than three-quarters of the
current population. U.N. demographers estimate that
by mid-century, Africa will be adding 21 million
people a year to world population and Asia 5
million.
- Although the populations
of Japan, Germany, Russia, and some Eastern European
countries are already declining, U.N. demographers
do not indicate a population peak among industrial
countries as a group until 2036.
- Global spending on
contraceptive supplies and services totaled just
$338 million in 2007, considerably less than half
the amount in 1995--despite a 20-percent increase in
the number of people of reproductive age in
developing countries.
This new population update includes the latest
figures on annual additions to world population, donor
family-planning expenditures, and the reproductive-age
population in developing countries.
Read the Vital Signs analysis,
"Population Growth Steady in Recent Years," by
Robert Engelman.
Complete trends will be available with full endnote
referencing, Excel spreadsheets, and presentation-ready
charts as part of our new subscription service,
Vital Signs Online, slated to launch this fall.
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