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| Sunday, 26 September 2004 |
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Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Will population explode ? Is Planet Earth shrinking or what?? It sure seems to be because everywhere we look, the roads are teeming with people, with hardly enough space to walk. The answer is simple. It's not that the planet is shrinking but the population is growing bigger, and bigger and bigger. What if one day there is a population explosion and we have no space to keep even a foot on the ground? Let's take a look at the facts and figures of the world population growth over the years. Way back in 1804 the population reached the one billion mark and today it has surpassed the six billion mark. We have come to this point in leaps and bounds - Two billion in 1927, three billion just 33 years later (1960), four billion in 1974, and five billion in 1987. Wow! The six billion mark was reached on October 12, 1999 and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) observed this day as the 'day of the six billion' This fast growing population is expected to top 8.9 billion by the year 2050. It is said that the world population has been growing at the rate of 78 million a year. Apart from the fact that more and more people are joining the human race every year, the life expectancy levels of the people are increasing. In 1950 the average life expectancy in the developing world was under 40 years. Today it is 61 or more. During the same period life expectancy in the developed world rose from 66-75 years. If you wonder how many people have lived on Earth since mankind came into existence the estimate given by experts to date is more than 81 billion! In our little island too the population has grown rapidly to reach 19,065,000 in 2003. What will the population of our country be at the next population census? A census is the survey (a head count) carried out by the State to estimate how many people live in Sri Lanka.
Population figures of ... China - 1,313.3 million India - 1,081.2 million Russian Federation -142.4 million USA - 297 million South Africa - 45.2 million Statistical Pocket booklet - (Dept. of Census)
The growth... In AD1, the world had a population of about 200 million. In 1,400 years it doubled. It reached 900 million in 1800, over 1,600 million in 1900, over 2,000 million in 1930, over 3,000 million in 1960, over 4,000 million in 1975. Experts predict that the world's population will level out around AD 2,100, when there will probably be about 10,200 million people on Earth. |
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