Future Consumers
The United Nations predicts a 40 percent increase in the human population by 2050. The world's human population will jump from the present 6.5 billion to 9.1 billion by 2050, according to a recent United Nations survey.The survey found that much of the growth will be in the least-developed countries, where the high mortality is outweighed by an even higher birth rate.
"It is going to be a strain on the world, but it seems feasible," Hania Zlotnik, director of the U.N. Population Division, was quoted by the Associated Press. “It doesn't seem that there is a crisis coming, (but) that doesn't mean that some countries are not facing a crisis."
Populations will at least triple in some of the poorest nations -- Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, East Timor, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, and Uganda. Based on the U.N. survey data, nine countries will account for half of the 2.6 billion increase: India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bangladesh, Uganda, Ethiopia, and the United States. India is expected to surpass China as the world's most populous country by 2025, Zlotnik said.
The population growth will be fostered in part by a lower death rate. The average life expectancy of a child born in 2050 will be 75 years old, according to the survey. The current average life expectancy is 65 years.
Source: Meat News
2 March 2005
1 minute read
