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English
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| Population | Annual Growth Rate | |||||
| Region | 1985 | 2000 | 2025 | 1950 to 1985 |
1985 to 2000 |
2000 to 2025 |
| (billion) | (per cnt) | |||||
| World | 4.8 | 6.1 | 8.2 | 1.9 | 1.6. | 1.2 |
| Africa | 0.56 | 0.87 | 2.6 | 3.1 | 2.5 | |
| Latin America | 0.41 | 0 55 | 0.78 | 2.6 | 2.0 | 1.4 |
| Asia | 2.82 | 3.55 | 4.54 | 2.1 | 1.6 | 1.0 |
| North America | 0.26 | 0.30 | 0.35 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.6 |
| Europe | 0.49 | 0.51 | 0.52 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
| USSR | 0.28 | 0.31 | 0.37 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.6 |
| Oceania | 0.02 | 0.03 | 0.04 | 1.9 | 1.4 | 0 9 |
|
* Medium-variant projections. Source: Department of International Economic and Social Affairs, World Population Prospects: Estimate and projections as Assessed in 1984 (New York: UN, 1986). | ||||||
A more recent phenomenon is the flight of 'ecological refugees' from areas of environmental degradation.
27. Much of the movement is from countryside to city. (See Chapter 9.) In 1985, some 40 per cent of the world's population lived in cities; the magnitude of the urban drift can be seen in the fact that since 1950, the increase in urban population has been larger than the increase in rural population both in percentage and in absolute terms. This shift is most striking in developing countries, where the number of city-dwellers quadrupled during this period.[1]
3. Improved heath and Education
28. Improvements in the health and education of all, but especially of women and in conjunction with other social changes that false the status of women, can have a profound effect in bringing down population growth rates. In an initial period, however, better health care means that more babies live to reproduce and that women reproduce over longer time spans.
- ↑ DIESA, op. cit.
