International Policy

Population Growth Slowing - Except in Poor Countries

The world's population is continuing to grow, but at a much slower rate than experts predicted just a few years ago. The bad news is that growth remains very high in many of the world's poorest countries.

  • The world's population is estimated to have reached 1 billion for the first time in 1830.

  • It then took only 120 years to reach 2 billion, and 30 years more to reach 3 billion.

  • In the past half-century, population has grown by more than 250 percent and is now 5.8 billion.

  • Nearly 98 percent of the annual increase reported for 1997 occurred in countries of the developing regions of the world.

Demographers say 80 percent of the world's population now resides in Third World countries. These 74 countries are on a course to double their populations within less than 30 years.

Some poor countries have achieved dramatic declines in birthrates recently. In Bangladesh, fertility dropped from 6.2 children per woman in 1985 to 3.57 in 1997. In Kenya, it fell from 7.5 children per woman to 4.4 during the same time period, according to Population Institute figures.

Source: Martin Sieff, "Population Grows in Wrong Places," Washington Times, January 12, 1998.

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