“THE WORLD has a very serious problem, my friend’ Shiva went on. ‘Poor children still die by their millions. Westerners and the global rich — like me — live in post-scarcity society, while a billion people struggle to get enough to eat. And we’re pushing the planet towards a tipping point, where the corals die and the forests burn and life becomes much, much harder.”- Ramez Naam, computer scientist and winner of the 2005 H.G. Wells Award.
There are on average about 250 babies born every minute, more than 130 million in a year. It is projected that there will be 11 billion people by 2100. 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. The consequent gender imbalance can have damaging social effects such as increased sexual violence and trafficking.
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GREETINGS: To Susan and Gary Skinner, wishing you to keep celebrating your love and your happy marriage! May this beautiful dream that is your marriage never end. May the magic in your lives never stop. You both deserve so much happiness and I want to wish you Happy 20th Anniversary. Belated happy 35th birthday Susan (feel like)!
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The world population was estimated to have reached 7.8 billion people as of March 2020. It took over 200,000 years of human history for the world’s population to reach 1 billion, and only 200 years more to reach 7 billion. Six of the earth’s seven continents are permanently inhabited on a large scale. Asia is the most populous continent, with its 4.54 billion inhabitants accounting for 60% of the world population. The world’s two most populated countries, China and India, together constitute about 36% of the world’s population.
Today we are observing “World Population Day”, an annual event every July 11. It was inspired by the public interest in Five Billion Day on July 11, 1987, the approximate date on which the world’s population reached five billion people. It aims to increase people’s awareness on various population issues such as the importance of family planning, gender equality, poverty, maternal health and human rights.
The world population increases annually by 100 million approximately every 14 months. World Population Day 2020: As people across the globe grapple with the novel coronavirus pandemic, the World Population Day this year focuses on multiple challenges – health, economic and social. The COVID-19 crisis has not spared any country, rich or poor. According to the John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center’s COVID19 daily case tracker as of July 11, 2020, the latest global confirmed cases is 12,459,363 with 559,438 global deaths. Reproductive health, family planning and mental health, among other issues, have taken a backseat as medical resources have been stretched due to the pandemic. This year’s theme is “How to safeguard the health and rights of women and girls amid the pandemic”, due to reports that domestic violence had increased globally amid the lockdown. Women also account for the largest share of front-line health workers, according to a UN report. There have been many instances of pregnant women unable to reach health care centers for delivery. There are 47 million women in low and middle-income countries may not be able to access modern contraceptives when lockdown-like disruptions happen. Women are also hit harder economically due to the COVID-19 crisis. Around 60 per cent of women across the world earn their livelihood by working in the informal sector.
Meanwhile, Central Luzon is still the third most populous region in the country according to the 2015 Census of Population reaching 11,218,177 Filipinos. The same survey indicates that in a span of five years, Region 3 is higher by 1,080,440 compared to the 2010 census results of 10.14 million. Furthermore, despite decreasing its Population Growth Rate (PGR) from 2.14 in 2010 to 1.92 in 2015, Central Luzon is also one of the 6 regions surpassing the national PGR, from 1.9 (2010) to 1.72 (2015). Of the seven provinces excluding highly urbanized cities, Bulacan is both the largest and the fastest growing in the region.
Commission on Population (PopCom) Region III attributes the lowered PGR as a result of increased modern contraceptive prevalence rate due to continuous advocacy programs on reproductive health (RH) and family planning, among other factors. PopCom however mentioned that migration is one of the major causes in the increase of Central Luzon’s population, due to the region’s proximity to the National Capital Region (NCR), where people who work and study in NCR establish residences in Region 3 and other neighboring regions. PopCom also connected the census results with the pressing need to address RH-related issues such as increasing cases of teenage pregnancy and increasing incidences of sexually transmitted infections including HIV-AIDS among adolescents.
But what influences fertility? 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. The global average fertility rate is just below 2.5 children per woman today. A record number of women now use contraception. Figures from the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs show 64% of married and cohabiting women used modern or traditional methods of contraception in 2015, a significant rise from 36% in 1970.
If birthrates have fallen so far, why is the population still rising fast? Of course, fertility rates are just half the story. People are living longer, far longer in some parts of the world. Notwithstanding about 55 million people die every year, which is less than half the number who are born. At the same time, life expectancy is higher than 80 in 30 countries and higher than 70 in more than 100 countries.