With 250 babies born each minute, how many people can the Earth sustain? | Lucy Lamble ... - 0 views
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but UN data suggests there were about a billion people in 1800, 2 billion in 1927, 5 billion in 1987 and just over 7.5 billion today.
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Since the 1960s, more boys than girls have been born every year. About 117 million women are believed to be “missing” in Asia and eastern Europe – due to discriminatory son preference and gender-biased sex selection.
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Over the last 30 years, some regions have seen up to 25% more male births than female births, reflecting the persistent low status of women and girls.
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Experts like Paul Ehrlich argue that the population of the world has long since surpassed optimal levels, though critics counter that consumption is as important as population levels.
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In the pre-modern era, fertility rates of 4.5 to 7 children per woman were common. At that time, high mortality rates of young people kept population growth low.
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The level of education in a society – of women in particular – is one of the most important predictors for the number of children families have.
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This compares with six for every 1,000 in Europe and northern America and four for every 1,000 in Australia and New Zealand.
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A consequence of falling child mortality but continuing high fertility is a “youth bulge” – a high population of young people.
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Family planning organisations are learning that to survive political shifts and budget cuts, they need to diversify their sources of funding. This means seeing family planning as not just a public health concern but also about development and a clear return on investment.