Photo: © Randy Olson
It might be just a number, but it's a huge one: 7,000,000,000. The World population continues to grow, specially in the developing world, and it is expected to reach 10.1 billion by the end of this century. It still makes a difference if a baby - even the baby 7 billion - is born in India or in France (see link below). The disparities around the globe are huge and global health is expected to play its role facing the World's challenges that lay ahead.
The developing world was responsible for the rapid grow: in twelve years the world population increased in 1 billion. For centuries, India and China have been among the world's most populous countries. But facing a demographic problem, the countries have modernized and lowered their fertility rates. Right now, the biggest growth is taking place in sub-Saharan Africa. Besides being the world poorest region, population is growing. Why is that happening? Poverty itself helps to explain it: infant mortality rates are high and access to family planning is low. As a result we have high birth rates and a booming population of 900 million — and this number can be triplicate by the end of this century.
Since the first billion was reached in 1804, the world population grew seven times, which is indeed remarkable as achievement for Humanity. Better medicine, improved access to healthcare and improvements in agriculture had as consequence a higher life expectancy for children, dramatically increasing the world population: 2 billion in 1927, 3 billion in 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1987 and 6 billion in 1999.
This puts new challenges to global health, specially after knowing the population growth happening in sub-Saharan Africa. There are disparities to be solved between the developed and the developing world: children in sub-Saharan Africa face everyday hunger and diseases such as HIV/AIDS or malaria. It is crucial to continue the improvement of healthcare, so it can be accessible to all, as well as basic life conditions. And it is also important to assure the education for those children becomes a reality: to give them support, health and education is to make sure they will be a source of wealth and energy for their countries.
read more: Population 7 Billion
read more: Population 7 Billion: What's The Impact?
read more: From One Maternity Ward, a Growing World
video: Visualizing How A Population Grows To 7 Billion
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