NUMBERS AND TRENDS

More People

World population is projected to surpass 9 billion by 2050. All of the projected growth will take place in the world's developing countries, which by 2050 will account for over 85 percent of world population. Six countries will account for half of this growth: India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

During the next 50 years, the population of the world's 49 poorest countries – those least able to afford basic services – will almost triple, rising from 668 million to 1.86 billion people.

Being Young

Although the rate of population growth has slowed, due to higher contraceptive use and falling fertility rates, global population is still rising by about 77 million people per year because there are so many young people of reproductive age. Nearly half of all people alive today are under the age of 25. There are over 1 billion youth aged 15 to 24, the parents of the next generation.

Living Closer Together

Virtually all population growth from now until 2030 will be concentrated in urban areas. In 1960, one in three persons lived in cities; today almost half of all people do. In five to ten years, city dwellers will be the majority for the first time in history. Today there are 19 megacities with 10 million people or more, and there will be 23 such cities by 2015.

Getting Older

One of the most significant trends today is the ageing of the world's people. Over the next 50 years, the number of persons aged 60 and over will more than triple, from 606 million to nearly 2 billion. The number of people 80 years and older will increase more than five-fold, from 69 million in 2000 to 379 million in 2050.

Impact of HIV/AIDS

AIDS is taking a devastating toll. In 35 highly affected countries of Africa, life expectancy at birth is estimated at 48 years, 6.5 years less than it would have been in the absence of AIDS. In Botswana, where one third of adults are infected, life expectancy is now a mere 36 years. Many villages in hard-hit countries are peopled only by children and the elderly. AIDS has taken a whole generation. The impact of this loss, impossible to put into words, is expected to intensify in the next decade.

Guided by the Programme of Action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development and the 1999 five-year review of the Conference, UNFPA is working around the world to achieve these international goals:

• Provide access for all to reproductive health services by 2015
  
  

• Reduce HIV infection in youth by one quarter by 2010
  
  

• Reduce maternal mortality by three quarters by 2010
  
  

• Reduce infant and child mortality by two thirds by 2010
  
  

• Ensure universal primary schooling by 2015
  
  

• Ensure that 90 per cent of all births are assisted by skilled attendants by 2015
  
  

• Halve the 1990 illiteracy rate for women and girls by 2005
  
  

• Halve the unmet need for family planning by 2005 and eliminate it altogether by 2015