During the remaining years of this critical decade, the world will choose, by design or by default, its demographic future. Today's couples want smaller families than their parents' generation. If they can choose, the world will be on the way to slower population growth.

In mid-1996, the world's population stood at 5.8 billion, growing by close to 87 million a year. Over 90 per cent of this growth is concentrated in developing countries. Although overall population growth rates are slowing down, the populations of sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South Asia are still expanding by around 3 per cent a year, enough to double their numbers in one generation.

Although it took 123 years for world population to grow from 1 billion to 2 billion, it took only 33 years for the third billion, 14 years for the fourth billion, and 13 years for the fifth billion. Eleven years later, sometime in 1998, the world will pass the 6 billion mark.

Asia has 3.5 billion, Africa just under 750 million, Latin America and the Caribbean close to 500 million inhabitants. By contrast, Europe has 727 million people and North America 295 million. Three-quarters of the world's population are concentrated in developing countries.

Looking ahead 20 years, United Nations population projections range from a low of 7.10 billion in 2015 to a high of just under 8 billion. The difference of 720 million in the span of one generation is nearly equivalent to the current population of Africa.

Further into the future, the projections diverge even more. By the year 2050, the United Nations low projection shows a world population of just under 8 billion and a high of nearly 12 billion. The difference between the two projections is equivalent to the whole of world population in 1975.

Source: UNFPA,The State of World Population 1996

(UNFPA, New York, 1996), p. 1 and pp. 70-72.

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