In the late 1980s the world human population was estimated at 5200 million people. This is projected to reach 6000 million by the year 2000. Where is the trend going to lead us?
A third of the world population lives in developed countries. They have adequate food and use up about three quarters of the world's goods to maintain their standard of living. About 2800 million people live in the tropics. Nearly half of these people live in poverty and barely have enough food to eat. Even when the amount of food is sufficient, their diet lacks essential nutrients and proteins so that many of them are severely malnourished. This is an extremely alarming situation.
World population Statistics Also show an alarming trend: the populations in developing countries are growing more rapidly than those in developed country. This would make the food shortage problem more acute in the future. In addition, people in the country side hope to find a better living in towns. So in many developing countries there is movement of people from the rural to the urban areas. This again affects food production as the proportion of people involved in farming decrease.
scientists and government are now faced with the problem of
• controlling population growth and
• solving food shortage.
In developing countries, for the survival of human race , we have to arrive at a stable population structure which planet earth can support.
The world population is estimated at growing at a rate of 1.7 per cent per year. This means that the population is increasing by about 85 million people per year.
Twp important factors affect the rate of population growth: birth rate and death rate. The popular explosion is at a result of
• an increase in birth rate and
• a decrease in death rate (mortality rate).
Normally , the birth rate is higher than the death rate, I.e. in a given time more people are born than die. This gives a net natural increase in population. However, improvements in sanitation, drugs , and medical care and techniques have caused the death rate to increase much faster than the birth rate. The net result is a rapid population increase or explosion.
