Earlier this year, the world's population surpassed 6.8 billion, months earlier than had been anticipated, and growth shows no sign of slowing down. According to the United Nations Population Division, humanity's growth actually slowed during the 1990s from 90 million annually to slightly less than 80 million a year. Despite the slowdown, though, predictions of world population growth by the middle of this century range from slightly less than 8 billion to as high as 11 billion people. No where on earth is this growth more rapid than in Africa.
Approximately 13% of the world's population now lives in Africa, with a population now believed to be in excess of 800 million people. Because so many Africans either live in rural areas difficult to survey or in urban areas without adequate statistical coverage, exact numbers or even estimates are questionable. Moreover, millions of Africans live as displaced persons in their own countries or as refugees in neighboring countries. Africa's population continues to grow - despite war and civil unrest, famine and pestilence (HIV-AIDS particularly). An estimated 95% of global population growth is in Africa and Asia, regions that already contain more than three-quarters of the world's population, and Africa itself is seen as expanding to 1.8 billion by 2050.
Currently, only seven African nations are among the 30 top populations in the world: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Sudan and Tanzania. By 2050, nine African nations are expected to be in the top 30: Ethiopia (exploding from number two to number one), Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Egypt, Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya and Madagascar. Kenya and Ghana have led the way in sex education, contraceptive distribution and other population control efforts, and they have slowed their respective population growth, but with a fertility rate of 38 births per 1,000 people and a mortality rate of only 14 deaths per 1,000, Kenya, ...
[view whole blog post
]
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
See More
Report Abuse