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Contrary to the fear mongering of the population alarmists, the world isn’t heading for a demographic catastrophe.
The latest data on world population from the U.N. Population Division reveals a number of trends that seem to indicate otherwise.
The following is PRI’s brief overview of some of the findings from the recently released 2015 Revision of the World Population Prospects.
According to the U.N. Population Division, world population is estimated to be 7.3 billion today. That number is expected to rise to 9.7 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100.
In the past two and a half decades, world population has increased by 2 billion people.
Yet despite the rapid rise in world population, the percentage of people living with hunger in developing countries has actually dropped from 24% to 14% over the same time period.
Welcoming another 4 billion to the human family does not appear to necessitate a demographic catastrophe.
In fact, the future appears to be quite bright for future generations, especially in poorer and less developed nations. Infant and childhood mortality are set to decline sharply worldwide.
By 2100, the rate of deaths among children under the age of five will fall as much as 82% in less developed nations and 80% in the world’s least developed countries.
Future generations will also have significantly longer lifespans to look forward to.
World average life expectancy at birth in the early 1950’s was 48 years for women and 45 for men. Today those numbers are 73 for women and 68 for men.
By 2100, life expectancy at birth will have risen to almost 85 for women and 82 for men worldwide and even higher in developed nations—92 years for women.
The challenges of the 21st century, rather than stemming from overpopulation, appear to arise from falling fertility rates and larger aging cohorts with comparatively fewer from younger cohorts to support them.
By 2100, potential dependents (adults over 65 and dependents under 20) in high and upper-middle income countries will constitute half of the total population, up from about 37% today. Continue reading
Sources
- Population Research Institute article written by Jonathan Abbamonte.
- Image: Human Populations
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