GLOBAL POPULATION SUMMARY: 2002

The material below is excerpted from Global Population Profile: 2002 and Beyond
United States Census Bureau International Programs Center, March 2004

The world’s population increased by 74 million (roughly equivalent to the population of Egypt) or 1.2 percent in 2002 to more than a total of 6.2 billion.

This rate of increase translated into a net addition of about 200,000 people per day.

However, the increase of 74 million in 2002 is substantially below the annual high of 87 million people added in 1989-90. The rate of growth is well below the high of about 2.2 percent a year experienced 40 years ago.

Census Bureau projections show the slowdown in the world’s population increase continuing into the foreseeable future.

Some report highlights:

• The slowdown in global population growth is linked primarily to declines in fertility. In 1990, the world’s women, on average, were giving birth to 3.3 children over their lifetimes. By 2002, the average had dropped to 2.6 children — slightly above the level needed to assure replacement of the population. Census Bureau projections show the level of fertility for the world as a whole descending below replacement level before 2050.

• While higher fertility rates was the dominant factor underlying the national, regional and global population growth during the past 50 years, the large proportion of women in their reproductive years in current national and global populations will account for much of the population change expected to occur over the next 50 years.

• “Population aging,” the rise in all regions in the size of older age groups relative to younger ones, will be an increasingly significant trend in coming decades. The world’s older population is expected to grow considerably.

• In 2050, there will be more than three times as many people age 65 and older as there are today. In contrast, the number of children is expected to remain relatively stable over the next five decades.

• Census Bureau projections indicate a number of African countries will experience levels of mortality during this decade that will lower the average life expectancy at birth to around 30 years by 2010, a level not seen since the beginning of the 20th century. Much of this decline in life expectancy is likely to result from AIDS mortality.

The Case for Diversity | Home