Though not for lack of trying...
Posted on 03/23/2004 1:19:44 PM PST by presidio9
The world population increased by 1.2 percent in 2002 to total more than 6.2 billion, but its rate of growth has slowed down, the US Census Bureau (news - web sites) said in a new report.
The rate of increase translated into a net addition of about 200,000 people per day and 74 million per year in 2002, roughly equivalent to the population of Egypt, according to the document
The bureau noted a slowdown of global population growth, saying it peaked just over a decade ago.
The increase of 74 million in 2002 is substantially below the annual high of 87 million people added in 1989-90, the report said.
Meanwhile, the rate of growth is well below the high of about 2.2 percent a year experienced 40 years ago.
The slowdown in global population growth is linked primarily to declines in fertility.
In 1990, women were giving birth, on average, to 3.3 children over their lifetimes, according to the study.
By 2002, the average had dropped to 2.6 children -- slightly above the level needed to assure replacement of the population.
The bureau projects the level of fertility will go below replacement level before 2050.
According to the report, the rise of older age groups relative to younger ones, will be an increasingly significant trend in coming decades in all parts of the world.
In 2050, there will be more than three times as many people age 65 and older as there are today.
In contrast, the number of children is expected to remain relatively stable over the next five decades.
US demographers also projected that a number of African countries will experience levels of mortality during this decade that will lower the average life expectancy at birth to around 30 years by 2010, a level not seen since the beginning of the 20th century.
Much of this decline in life expectancy is likely to result from the AIDS (news - web sites) epidemic.
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5,999,999,996
5,999,999,997
5,999,999,998
... Hey kid, didn't I already count you? Dammit, I lost my place. Now I have to start over ...
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Though not for lack of trying...
Those at most risk for AIDS rarely procreate.
Except in Africa. Most AIDs cases in Africa are among heterosexuals.
It's declining fertility that is slowing the growth. And much of that can be attributed to increasing prosperity.
I've always wondered why increasing prosperity causes declining fertility. It doesn't seem to be a general rule -- Russia's population has been declining but they haven't been getting more prosperous.
The man hasn't been born that can solve the population problem.
Which population problem? The problem of too many people or the problem of too few people? Some Western countries have fewer than two births per woman.
Did you remember to subtract one for Sheikh Ahmed Yassine?
Yes, there is a problem of "too few people". Too few of us. Now, how do we get "them" to cut it out over there?
What a great question! What population problem? The only problem with the population of planet earth (to paraphrase P.J. O'Rourke) is that there are too many people (on the continent of Africa) making their livings off spaces the size of my living room carpet. LOL and it's absolutely true too.
There is no problem of "too few people," as if we imagine that the human race will become extinct. We are now one billion people past the ability of the planet to support its population.
Most demographers agree that the growth rate of the world population is declining and will stabilize at about nine billion people. The planet will easily be able to support that many people if the technology of Western Civilization is available. However, if birth rates decline in the West and our civilization falls to barbarians hoards, then, yes, it will get ugly.
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