World’s 7-Billionth Person Expected in October

Futurologists have been sharing their misgivings about the intensive growth of the world population and its ramifications for a long while, and a recent report in the Science journal gives the latest figures, telling us that we can expect the population exceed 7 billion within the next three months. The seventh-billion person is predicted to appear in India on October 31.

The previous ten years saw the increase of one billion, and further estimates show that it will come up to nine billion in the next forty years. By 2100 we will be well into the eleventh billion, according to UN demography expert Professor David Bloom of Harvard University.

It emerges from the estimations up to the year 2050 that 97% of the 2.3 billion expected growth will be registered in regions with lower levels of development, 49% of them in Africa.

China, suffering an almost 50 million decrease, will have its population drop to 1.3 billion and lose the status of the highest-populated country to India whose 1.24 billion will become 1.69 billion by 2050. Africa by this time may easily have double the number of its inhabitants as of now, Nigeria nearing the level of the United States.

The average life expectancy is another factor that is expected to go up by seven years reaching the age of 76 by mid-century.

Therefore Professor Bloom forebodes a worldwide demographic upheaval that will be very difficult for many countries to tackle. The provision of food, water, energy and accommodation may become a problematic issue taxing the capabilities of developing countries to an unprecedented scope. Bloom warns us that the perils of the world situation will affect everybody everywhere.

Source of the image: Photl.