World @ 8 Billion, India Set to Be Most Populous

Why in News?

• The United Nations Population Fund said that the world’s population reached 8 billion on November 15, 2022.
• This unprecedented growth is due to the gradual increase in human lifespan owing to improvements in public health, nutrition, personal hygiene and medicine.
• It is also the result of high and persistent levels of fertility in some countries.

What’s in today’s article:

• The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) – About, work
• News Summary

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

• United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), formerly (1969–87) known as United Nations Fund for Population Activities, is trust fund under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
• Established in 1969, the UNFPA is the largest international source of assistance for population programs.
• It is the leading UN organization for the implementation of the 1994 Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development.
• In other words, UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.
  • Its mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.

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Work

• UNFPA funds assistance, research, and advocacy programs in three major areas:
  • reproductive health, including family planning, safe motherhood, and the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases,
  • the population problems of developed and developing countries and possible strategies for addressing them, and
  • issues related to the status of women, including the gender gap in education.
• UNFPA assistance programs are undertaken only in response to government requests.

News Summary

• As per the United Nations Population Fund, the human population on this planet touched 8 billion.

Key highlights

• Overall growth rate of population is slowing

• The UN said while it took the global population 12 years to grow from 7 billion to 8 billion.
• However, it will take approximately 15 years — until 2037 — for it to reach 9 billion. This is a sign that overall growth rate of global population is slowing.
• Growth trend
  • Falling mortality rate first led to a spectacular population growth, peaking at 2.1% per year between 1962 and 1965.
  • Between 1950 and 1987, world population doubled from 2.5 billion to 5 billion.
  • But as fewer children were born generation to generation, growth started to slow.
• More than half the world’s population lives in Asia
  • As of 2022, more than half the world’s population lives in Asia, China and India being the two most populous countries with more than 1.4 billion people each.
    • The World Population Prospects 2022, released in July 2022, put India’s population estimate at 1.412 billion this year, compared with China’s 1.426 billion.
    • It also said that India is set to become the world’s most populous country next year by surpassing China.
• World population to peak in 2080s
  • The UNFPA projects world population to peak at 10.4 billion in the 2080s and stay there until the end of the century.
    • As per the current trend, India is likely to peak in 2048 at 1.7 billion population and then start declining to 1.1 billion at the end of the century.
• International migration is now the driver of growth in many countries
  • According to the UN, international migration is now the driver of growth in many countries, with 281 million people living outside their country of birth in 2020.
  • All South Asian nations — India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka — have seen high levels of emigration in recent years.
• Observations regarding India
  • While India’s population growth is stablising, it is still growing at 0.7% per year and is set to surpass China in 2023 as the world’s most populous country.
  • It noted that India’s fertility rate has hit 2.1 births per woman — replacement-level fertility — and is falling.
    • Replacement Rate – is the required number of births per woman in a country required to keep the population size stable.
• We need to address the issue of growing inequality
  • A handful of billionaires control as much wealth as the poorest half of the world.
  • The top one per cent globally pockets one fifth of the world’s income.
  • People in the richest countries can expect to live up to 30 years longer than those in the poorest.
  • The UN said that unless we bridge the yawning chasm between the global haves and have-nots, we are setting ourselves up for an 8-billion-strong world filled with tensions and mistrust, crisis and conflict.