World Population To Hit 7 Billion in 2011
World Population To Hit 7 Billion in 2011 – In a sobering assessment of those two trends, William Butz, president of the Population Reference Bureau, said that ”chronically low birth rates in developed countries are beginning to challenge the health and financial security of the elderly”.
At the same time, ”developing countries are adding over 80 million to the population each year and the poorest of those countries are adding 20 million, exacerbating poverty and threatening the environment.”
Projections, especially over decades, are vulnerable to changes in immigration, retirement ages, birth rates, health care and other variables. But in releasing the bureau’s 2010 population data sheet, Carl Haub, its senior demographer, estimated this week that by 2050 the planet will be home to more than 9 billion people.
Even with a decline in birth rates in less developed countries from six children per woman in 1950 to 2.5 today, the population of Africa is projected to at least double by mid-century to 2.1 billion. Asia will add an additional 1.3 billion.
While the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand will continue to grow because of higher birth rates and immigration, Europe, Japan and South Korea will shrink (although the recession reduced birth rates in the US and Spain and slowed rising rates in Russia and Norway).
In Japan, the population of working-age people, compared with the population 65 and older that is dependent on them, is projected to decline to a ratio of 1:1, from the current 3:1. Worldwide, the ratio of working age people to those in the older group is expected to decline from 9:1 to 4:1.
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