Population Growth
Two basic factors control population growth in a given period: a society's birthrate and its life expectancy. Life expectancy relates to a third factor, mortality, the percentage of the population that dies in a given period. In the late 1900s the world's birthrate actually decreased. However, because mortality also decreased and life expectancy greatly increased, the world population topped 6 billion in 2000 and continues to grow.
The last four centuries have brought a dramatic increase in the world's population. Two basic factors control population growth in a given period: a society's birthrate and its life expectancy. Birthrate, also known as fertility, is the number of children born per thousand people in a year. Life expectancy is…>> (read more)
Population Growth in the News
SOMETIMES, a crisis lasts so long, or proves so impervious to remedy, that it becomes normal. We are now 44 years removed from Daniel Patrick Moynihan's famous Labor Department…>> (read more)
SOMETHING DRAMATIC HAS HAPPENED TO THE world's birthrates. Defying predictions of demographic decline, northern Europeans have started having more babies. Britain and France are now projecting steady population growth…>> (read more)
Byline: David Perlman
A $15 million grant has been awarded to UC Berkeley's School of Public Health to study the impact of the world's population growth on…>> (read more)
Population Growth Statistics
