WASHINGTON: India presently contributes more to world population growth than China or any other country and will continue to do so till the year 2150 says a World Bank report.
India’s eventual stationary population is rejected in the banks world population projections at 23 times its 1985 population which was 765.147. By 2150 India’s population is projected 1756718 million against Chinas projected population of 1680.092 million by then.
India will be overtaking China as the most populous nation in the world sometime between 2050 and 2075.
After India and China the leading contributors to world population growth are Pakistan and Nigeria (Pakistan by 2150 §05.266 million against the 1990 population of 114290 million and Nigeria 507998 million in 2150 against the 1990 population 116.738 million).
At the other extreme what used to be the Federal Republic of Germany is contracting by 100,000 people a year. Even recent mass migrations from the old German Democratic Republic-which occurred too recently to be incorporated in these estimates-are unlikely to produce substantial population growth.
Hungary is also losing population but only a fifth as much as the Federal Republic of Germany.
Despite contributing so much to growth none of the large countries is growing as fast as some states in the Persian Gulf and in sub-Saharan Africa.
In the Gulf Qatar and Oman are grow in by more than4% a year and Sandi Arabia Djibouti and Kuwait by more than 3.7%. In Africa Cote d ‘Ivories and Kenya are grow more than 4% and Zambia by about
Total fertility is above 72 Rwanda, Yemen Arab Republic Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire and just below this level in Saudi Arabia and Oman. At the other end are some European countries that now port very low fertility chief among are Italy and the Federal Republic of Germany.
The shortest life expectancies Harley years are estimated for Afghani several countries in West Africa. At the other end of the scale life expectancies In Japan France and Iceland are almost twice as long as.
The World Bank projections differ only slightly from those of the United Nations. But there are differences due to differences in procedures for projecting vital rates and to slightly different estimates of current population
The world population surpassed five billion in mid-1987 and is projected to reach 5.3 billion in 1990. )
The projection shows that it will take over 11 years to add another billion to the five billion people of 1987. ES if
Despite a declining trend in fertility s population growth in the short term will be very high After the turn of the century population will continue to grow though at a slower rate..
The seven-billion mark will be hit before — the end of the year 2010. By 2025 due to differences in growth rates between less _ developed and more developed countries 84.1% of the world’s population will be living in what are currently less developed countries up from 75.7% in 1985.
AS a percentage of the world Population Asia’s population by 2025 will shrink a little to 58.2% from 58.3% in 1985 Europe and the USSR from 15.9% to 10.19) and America from 13.8% to 12.4%
India adds as many people living in Nepal or Australia and the annual increase R Pakistan is equivalent to one and half times the population of Singapore.
The situation in West Asia and North Africa may appear on the surface to immediately alarming. Nevertheless the region contains some of the fast growing populations of the world.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 20, 1991
