World population approaches 7 billion

From Slate (7-30-10):

Forecasters Expect World Population to Reach 7 Billion Next Year

The population of the world will climb above 7 billion sometime in 2011, says the Population Reference Bureau, a research group. With 267 people being born every minute and only 108 dying, developing countries are adding more than 80 million people to the world's population every year. Carl Haub, the group's senior demographer, estimated that by 2050 the world's population will be more than 9 billion.While the news can be celebrated because it represents longer life spans, the group is concerned. A closer look at the data shows that the ratio of working-age adults to the elderly that they are called on to support is rapidly declining because of lower birthrates. It also shows that the majority of population growth is happening in the world's poorest countries, "exacerbating poverty and threatening the environment," according to William P. Butz, the president of the Population Reference Bureau. "While the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand will continue to grow because of higher birthrates and immigration, Europe, Japan and South Korea will shrink (although the recession reduced birthrates in the United States and Spain and slowed rising birthrates in Russia and Norway)," the New York Times reported. In the U.S., where people seem constantly worried by the state of Social Security and Medicare, the proportion of the gross domestic product spent on those two entitlement programs will jump from 8.4 percent this year to 14.5 percent by 2050.

Read original story in The New York Times | Friday, July 30, 2010