By 2010, the world’s population will be nearly 11 billion. This unprecedented demographic change is having a negative impact on the environment and is causing economic and social problems. At the same time, it is also opening up new opportunities.
This is the message of the new report, Global Population Growth and Sustainable Development, produced by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. According to the report, the world’s population has more than tripled since 1950, from about 2.5 billion in 1950 to nearly 7.9 billion in 2021. By the end of the century, the world’s population will reach 11 billion.
Rapid population growth is a natural phenomenon
UN experts believe that such rapid population growth is linked to a major demographic trend: a decrease in the mortality and fertility rates. For many countries this transition has already been completed, and there the population is aging, and if its number is growing, it is growing rather slowly. However, for a number of other states, the demographic transition is still at an early or intermediate stage, and they are experiencing dramatic population growth and rapid urbanization.
Success or challenge?
Rapid population growth is the result of one of the greatest achievements of socio-economic progress – a substantial increase in average human life expectancy through the development of public health, nutrition, personal hygiene and medicine. On the other hand, it is the result of the failure of the international community to provide people around the world with the necessary knowledge and tools to make conscious and responsible decisions about the number of children.
Rapid population growth is both a cause and a consequence of slow progress in development. Experts fear that rapid population growth can undermine sustainable development, particularly the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially those related to health, education and gender equality.
Access to reproductive health care
Allowing women to decide how many children they want to have and when can help break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. Increasing access to high-quality reproductive health services, including safe and effective family planning methods, can help reduce fertility and accelerate economic and social development.
Experts believe that fertility reductions can help accelerate economic growth. In countries with relatively high fertility rates, investments in education and health care can significantly increase the positive, albeit temporary, economic effect.
Effects of demographic change
Experts believe that rising incomes contribute more to environmental degradation than population growth. In this context, they call on developed countries to move faster toward zero greenhouse gas emissions and the implementation of strategies to eliminate the detrimental impact of human activity on the environment.
According to experts, it is time to reconsider how we produce and consume food in order to feed the world’s growing population and mitigate environmental damage.