The animal population in the world is declining at an alarming rate. Many species have already become extinct and many others are on the verge of extinction – we call them endangered species. Patrick Greenfield and Max Benato wrote on October 13, 2022, in the Guardian that the earth’s wildlife population has dropped by 69% in less than 50 years. And this has happened because of human actions like deforestation, industrial pollution, and consumption beyond the limits of the planet. The human population is however growing steadily.
According to the United Nations projection, the world population reached eight billion on November 15, 2022. The UN tweeted, “8 billion hopes. 8 billion dreams. 8 billion solutions. Our planet is now home to 8 billion people,” The tweet has a kind of celebratory tone. The UN ascribes the growth to increased life expectancy, and improvements in public health, nutrition, medicine, etc. But these attributes do not seem to hold everywhere.
Let’s take a look at the comparison of the geographical distribution of the world population in 2010 with the current scenario as estimated by the Worldometer on November 18, 2022:
Region | Population 2010 | Current Population | Increase (%) |
Asia | 4209593693 | 4737113783 | 12.53 |
Africa | 1039304033 | 1421519301 | 36.78 |
Europe | 736412989 | 748718499 | 1.67 |
North America | 343287419 | 374338852 | 9.05 |
South America and the Caribbean | 591352388 | 668111458 | 12.98 |
Oceania | 36873081 | 44018554 | 19.38 |
The percentage increases worked out in the last column of the above table show that the top contributor to the growth of the world population to 8 billion is Africa. Most African countries are poor with comparatively lower life expectancy and inadequate availability of nutrition, medicine, etc. So, the growth is mostly driven by higher fertility rates. According to World Bank data updated on September 16, 2022, 35 countries in the world had fertility rates above 4 in 2020 and all of them were African countries. The highest rate was 6.735 in Niger whereas the lowest was in South Korea at 0.837.
As reported by Our World in Data, the world population reached 1 billion in 1803 and then rose to 2 billion in 1928 that is, after 125 years. But it took only 12 years to grow from 7 billion to 8 billion. The UN estimates that by 2037 the world population will grow by another billion. UN Under-Secretary-GeneraI for Economic and Social Affairs Liu Zhenmin observes, “Rapid population growth makes eradicating poverty, combatting hunger and malnutrition, and increasing the coverage of health and education systems more difficult”.
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This article was published in the Daily Sun on November 22, 2022. Please read the full article here or here.