August 2011's Edition of
POPULATION ONLINE
Brings you stories on...

• World Population Day Marks Countdown to 7 Billion
  Twenty-four years ago the United Nations marked the "Day of 5 Billion" by designating July 11th as World Population Day. This year on World Population Day the UN reported that world population would cross the 7 billion threshold on October 31, 2011. The announcement confirmed earlier demographic estimates indicating that world population would cross the 7 billion mark this year, just 12 years after the 6 billion mark was crossed in October of 1999.
• PRB’s 2011 Population Data Sheet Released
  On July 28, 2011, the Population Reference Bureau released its annual population data sheet. Widely regarded as the latest, most accurate non-government report on demographic trends, this year's data sheet projects that world population is on track to reach 9.6 billion by July of 2050. [PRB's 2050 projection is slightly higher than the 9.3 billion projection contained in the UN's latest population projection (2010 Population Revision released in May of this year)]. PRB's 2011 report indicates a continued decline in global fertility rates, but it bumped up the estimated "total fertility rate" for some countries, like Burundi and Zimbabwe.
• House Subcommittee Votes to Cut International Family Planning Funding
  In July, the House State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee approved $461 million for international family planning and reproductive health programs. This represents a 25% cut in U.S. international family planning assistance for FY2012. The decrease was approved as part of a larger appropriation bill for the State Department and U.S. foreign assistance programs.
• Inside the World of Child Brides
  The practice of child marriage, which is still widely prevalent in some parts of South Asia, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa, is one of the principal reasons that fertility rates remain high in those areas. About 25,000 girls a day become child brides. As part of its coverage this year on world population at 7 billion, the National Geographic features stories on the practice of child marriage in India and Yemen.
• IOM Recommends Health Plans Fully Cover Contraception
  The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommended in a recent report to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that health insurance plans cover the cost of all USDA-approved contraceptives as well as other preventative health measures at no extra cost. Birth control methods are currently only partially covered by insurance plans. On August 1, HHS announced that it would be adopting the IOM's recommendations. Insurance companies have until August 1, 2012 to include contraception, well-woman visits, breastfeeding support, HIV screening and counseling, domestic violence screening, and other preventative measures. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of HHS, said in a statement, "These historic guidelines are based on science and existing literature and will help ensure women get the preventive health benefits they need."
• UN Releases Progress Report on Millennium Development Goals
  On July 7 the United Nations released its 2011 Millennium Development Goals Report. The report notes that while "significant strides" have been made in some areas, the "world's poorest are being left behind." Among the highlights of the report: despite some setbacks from economic, food, and energy crises, the global poverty rate is on track to fall below 15 percent; new HIV infections steadily declined; malaria deaths worldwide declined by 20 percent between 2000 and 2009; and more than 1 billion people in urban areas gained access to improved drinking water sources from 1990-2008. However, the report also notes that the number of urban residents living in slum conditions has gone up, the poorest children have made the slowest progress in terms of improved nutrition, full and productive employment for women in the developing world remains low, and more than 2.6 billion people still lack access to forms of improved sanitation.
• Famine in the Horn of Africa
  The Horn of Africa has been suffering under a drought for the past two years, and right now poverty, drought, and civil war have combined to threaten 10 million people with malnutrition and starvation. Somalia now has the highest rate of malnutrition in the world. So far the famine in Southern Somalia has killed tens of thousands of people most of them children. According to the United Nations around 3.2 million people in Somalia need lifesaving assistance and the World Food Program says that as many as 19 to 24 children per 10,000 under age 5 are dying every day in some areas. "Somalia is facing its worst food security crisis in the last 20 years," according to Mark Bowden, the top U.N. official in charge of humanitarian aid to the country. He told reporters that $300 million is needed within two months to help alleviate the crisis.