2.5 billion increase in world population by 2050: United Nations estimates

The world’s population is on track to surpass 9 billion persons by 2050, according to the newly released 2006 Revision of the United Nations population estimates and projections, which also predict that the number of elderly persons will hit 1 billion.
“One of the surprises is that population growth is most concentrated in the 60 plus age group”, Hania Zlotnik, the Director of the United Nations Population Division said during the launch of the report recently in New York.

“The place where the action is is the older population”, she said. “The biggest change will occur in the developing world, and developing countries will have to cope with the situation” by investing in both education and care of the elderly.

According to the new estimates, the world population will likely increase by 2.5 billion over the next 43 years, passing from the current 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion in 2050.

As a result of declining fertility and increasing longevity, the populations of more and more countries are ageing rapidly. Between 2005 and 2050, half of the increase in the world population will be accounted for by a rise in the population aged 60 years or over, whereas the number of children (under age 15) will decline slightly.
According to the 2006 Revision, fertility in the less developed countries as a whole is expected to drop from 2.75 children per woman in 2005-2010 to 2.05 in 2045-2050. To achieve such reductions, it is essential that access to family planning expands in the poorest countries, the Population Division said, pointing out that without this, the world population could increase by twice as many people as those alive in 1950.

Reacting to the findings, the Executive Director of UNFPA said they serve as a wake-up call to the urgency of giving couples the means to exercise their human right to freely determine the sizes of their families.

“Currently, about 200 million women in these countries lack access to safe and effective contraceptive services”, said Thoraya Ahmed Obaid in a news release. Funding for family planning must be increased to meet the needs of these women, not only to determine the world’s future, but also to prevent unintended pregnancies and reduce maternal and infant death”.

(Source: UN News Centre, 13 March)