September 22, 1999
DAKAR, Senegal (PANA) - The world population will reach 6 billion, representing an increase of a billion people in just 12 years, the UN Population Fund says.
In its 'State of the World Population 1999' released Wednesday, the fund says global population has quadrupled this century, growing faster than at any time in previous history.
"How fast the next billion people are added, the effect on natural resources and the environment, and the quality of life will depend on policy and funding decisions taken in the next 5 to 10 years," it adds.
It says that at the beginning of the 20th century, the world's population was approximately 1.5 billion. It reached 2 billion in 1927, 3 billion in 1960, billion, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1987 and to 6 billion by 12 October 1999.
According to the fund, nearly half of the world population would be under 25 years of age.
The phenomenal population growth has largely been attributed to people living longer and healthier lives than ever before, the report says, adding that modern medicine and better living conditions have dramatically lowered he global death rate, especially for infants and children.
Since 1950, average life expectancy has risen from 46 to 66 years.
A growing majority of women and men have the information and means to make choices about the number and spacing of their children, it says.
However, there are still a billion people -- one person in six -- living in poverty.
Although the rate of population growth is slowing, due to falling birth rates, the absolute annual increase is still near its historic high of 86 millions a decade ago because there are so many women and men of childbearing age, the report says.
Over 95 percent of growth is in developing countries, with the fastest growing regions being sub-Saharan Africa where the average woman has 5.5 children, and part of South Asia and western Asia.
On the other hand, population growth has slowed or stopped in Europe, North America and Japan. The United States is the only industrial country where large population increases are still projected, largely due to immigration.
The United Nations projects that world population will grow from 6 billion to between 7.3 and 10.7 billion by 2050, with 8.9 billion considered the most likely -- meaning world populations may grow almost as much in the next 50 years as in the past 50.
The report notes that population growth has begun to slow down mainly due to improved education and health care and increased access to family planning in Asia, Africa and Latin America, women are having fewer children, and families are smaller than ever before.
In developing countries overall, birth rates have dropped by half since 1969, when the UN began its population fund, from almost six children per woman to under three presently.
However, the highest rates of growth are taking place in the poorest countries, those least prepared to provide basic services and jobs for growing numbers of young people.
The people and countries most affected are concentrated in Africa and South Asia, but there are some in every developing region. In 62 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, over 40 percent of the population in under age 15.
Africa, the world's most rapidly growing region, is also the youngest, with a median age of only 18. World-wide, over a billion people are between ages 15 and 24, the parents of the next generation, the report notes.
At the same time, HIV/AIDS is taking a heavier toll than had been anticipated by demographic experts, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is the leading cause of death.
In many countries, it has erased decades of progress in reducing child mortality and increasing life expectancy.
In 29 African countries, the average life expectancy is now seven years less than it would have been without AIDS, the reports says, pointing out, however, that the population is not expected to decline in any of these countries because of continuing high birth rates.
It warns that unless governments commit further action and funding, the cumulative effects of continuing poverty, gender discrimination, new threats such as HIV/AIDS, environmental change and shrinking international resources for development could wipe our the benefits of lower fertility over the past generation, with global consequences.
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