World population hits 7 billion

Editor's Note

The world's population will reach the seven-billion mark on Oct 31, according to projections by the UN. It's a milestone, but also a wake-up call, a call to action. This special coverage introduces the basic facts about populous countries, challenges and problems caused by the spikes in human population. 

                                          Population explosion                                       

    The United Nations Population Fund predicts not only that the planet's population will reach 7 billion by Oct 31, but another billion will be here by 2025, and the total will reach 10 billion before the end of the century.

    According to demographers, the world's population didn't reach 1 billion until 1804, and it took 123 years to hit the 2 billion mark in 1927. Then the pace accelerated — 3 billion in 1959, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1987, 6 billion in 1998.

    "The constraints of the biosphere are fixed," Harvard University sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson wrote in his 2002 book, "The Future of Life."

   Wilson predicted the Earth's resources could be stretched to support a population of 10 billion, just about where UN population estimators say growth will level out by the end of the century.

  1. CHINA

    2. INDIA

China's population has increased to 1.37 billion, including 1.3397 billion on the mainland, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

China introduced its family planning policy in late 1970s in a bid to curb the large population's pressure on the environment and resources, as well as to raise the population's quality of life.

Without China's family planning policy, the world's seven billionth person would have been born five years ago, Prof. Zhai Zhenwu, dean of Beijing-based Renmin University's School of Sociology and Population, said on Oct 26.

According to statistics from China's National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC), the proportion of China's population in the entire world has fallen to 19 percent, at present, from 22 percent three decades ago.

In the past decade, India's population grew by 17.6 percent, to 1.21 billion, according to census data. Though the growth rate has slowed, if there is no radical change in trend the country's population is expected to exceed 1.45 billion by 2035.

Based on current trends, India is set to overtake China as the world's largest country by 2025, according to the US Census Bureau.

Now, new national population policy that seeks to hasten the process of population stabilisation through a series of socio-economic measures.

  4. INDONESIA

As of Oct 25, 2011, the United States has a total resident population of 312.4 million, making it the third most populous country in the world.

The Census Bureau projects a US population of 439 million in 2050, which is a 46% increase from 2007 (301.3 million). However, the United Nations projects a US population of 402 million in 2050, an increase of 32% from 2007.

With over 238 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, and it is projected that by 2025, Indonesia's population will have reached 273 million.

The Indonesian National Family Planning Programme is implemented by the government with involvement and participation by the community and private sectors.

Brazil's poulation is approximately 185 million, and is predominantly young: 62 percent of Brazilians are under 29 years of age, according to website of Embassy of Brazil in London.

Brazil's rate of population growth, high throughout the early and mid-20th century, has decreased significantly since 1970, due largely to economic modernisation and a dramatic urbanisation process. 

Pakistan has over 180 million population, according to Pakistan media The Nation.

With four million births per year, Pakistan is poised to become the world's fourth most populous nation in just under 40 years, Al Jazeera said.

At the current annual growth rate of 3 percent, in 20 years time Nigeria's population could reach a staggering 300 million from the present estimate of close to 160 million, according to UN.

42.2 percent of 67 million youth population in the country were out of job.

Nigeria will be the third most populous country in the world by 2100, up from its current seventh position.

Bangladesh's population stands at 150.5 million in 2011, according to a UN projection released on Oct 26, five-days ahead of when the world population is expected to reach 7 billion.

Explaining Bangladesh's plans in a world of 7 billion people, the director general for family planning M N Neazuddin said they have already targeted to bring down the total fertility rate from the current of 2.5 to 2.1.

Russia's population, now at 143 million, has shrunk by 5.7 million since 1991.

In May 2006, in an attempt to reverse the population fall, the Russian government offered a bonus of 250,000 rubles (about $9,200) to women who would have a second child.

Another government strategy is to encourage immigration.

The population of Japan as per June 2008 stands at 127.7 million.

Japan's low birthrate and ageing society are taking its economy to the brink of a demographic crisis to which it is struggling to find solutions.

The current population will dip below 100 million in 2046, according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research in Tokyo.

Challenges loom as world population hits 7 billion.

Experts cautioned that strains are intensifying: rising energy and food prices, environmental stresses, more than 900 million people undernourished.

"Extreme poverty and large families tend to reinforce each other," says Lester Brown, the environmental analyst who heads the Earth Policy Institute in Washington. "The challenge is to intervene in that cycle and accelerate the shift to smaller families."

Without such intervention, Brown says, food and water shortages could fuel political destabilization in developing regions. The International Water Management Institute shares these concerns, predicting that by 2025 about 1.8 billion people will live in places suffering from severe water scarcity.

In today's world, many youngsters con't find job due to high competition and lacking of education and skills.

    Recently, anger over unemployment, austerity, growing inequality, tax policies and opposition to the financial elite has sparked the protests in 951 cities in 82 countries around the world.

As the global population hits seven billion, experts are warning that skewed gender ratios could fuel the emergence of volatile "bachelor nations" driven by an aggressive competition for brides.

    In India and Vietnam the sex ratio is around 112 boys for every 100 girls. In China it is almost 120 to 100 - and in some places higher than 130, according to AFP.

As life expectancy grows and fertility rates decline, a diminishing working-age population will support ever more dependents.

    The effects of this demographic shift will be staggering.  Economic, social, and even military policy throughout the next century will have to respond to this unalterable trend.

Many environmentalists agree that population control is essential if humanity is to move on to a more sustainable track, but how can this be done?

Former Irish President Mary Robinson said keeping girls in school was one of the most important things policymakers could do to address the coming challenges of an ever-increasing population.Joel Cohen, a professor of population studies at Rockefeller University and Columbia University in New York, said universal secondary education offered a way to reduce population in high-fertility regions.

Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, former Nigerian health minister and executive director of the United Nations Population Fund or UNFPA, told Reuters his focus is very much on empowering women in such a way as to change the cultural norms.

 "When a young woman goes through at least secondary education, her children survive better, physically they mature, emotionally they mature, and because they have education, they are able to make choices," Osotimehin said.

"It is not just their ability to make the choice about family planning. It's also that they have power of their own, which enables them to live a life of dignity and respect."