Population Institute Releases Report on World Population at 7 Billion

With world population officially projected to cross the 7 billion mark on October 31, the Population Institute released a report in later September outlining the critical challenges posed by population growth…and the correspondingly need to ensure universal access to family planning and reproductive health services.

The report, which looks back at how the world has changed in the 12 years since the 6 billion mark was crossed, warns that while notable progress has been made in making immunizations, safe drinking water, and education more available to children in the developing world, those young people “are inheriting a world in which arable land and water are in increasingly short supply, food and fuel prices are steadily increasing, rivers and lakes are shrinking, water levels are falling, temperatures are rising, drought and flooding are intensifying, biodiversity is declining, the number of failing states is expanding, and the very future of ocean habitats is threatened.”

The report documents how rising food and energy prices, along with climate change, threaten to reverse the gains that have been made in reducing hunger and severe poverty. The report notes that, “The world is a much different place today than it was in 1999. A century marked by falling prices, escalating hopes, and rising standards of living has given way to a decade of rising prices, deflated hopes, and setbacks in reducing hunger and world poverty. The fight against global warming has turned into a retreat, and leading thinkers are challenging traditional assumptions about the sustainability of economic growth.”

The report also challenges the notion that world population will soon peak. Noting that fertility rates are not declining as fast as many expected, the report warns that “ Adolescent pregnancy rates remain high, and with the world’s largest generation of people now entering their prime reproductive years, world population may not stabilize as soon as previously hoped or expected. While lack of access to contraceptives is still a problem in many parts of the world, and urgently needs to be addressed, supplying more contraceptives may not yield significant drops in fertility rates without a fundamental shift in attitudes toward women and girls and the abandonment of practices like child marriage.”

http://www.populationinstitute.org/external/files/reports/from-6b-to-7b.pdf