“BURSTING AT SEAMS”

Press, Volume C, Issue 29402, 3 January 1961, Page 15

“BURSTING AT SEAMS”

Warning On Rise Of Population <N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, Dee. SI. The world's population will pass 3.000 million in 1961 and is expected- to reach 3830 million by 1975, says this week’s “British Medical Journal” in a leading article entitled “Bursting at the Seams. 1 * The article said that in the population of the world was estimated at 2854 million and to be increasing at an average rate of 1.7 per cent, each year. The present birth rate of 35 a thousand added about 100 million every year, and the estimated death rate of 19 a thousand took away about 51 million, leaving a net annual gain of 48 million people—more than the population • England and Wales. Vhe rate of increase was greater in Vmderdeveloped parts of the worn. “®ven in the relatively short run tc 1975 the population of the world is expected (on moderate assumptions) to rise by about one-third of the existing total of 3830 million,” the article said.

Between those who counselled resistance to the population rise, and those who did not, there was a middle view that papulation growth would slow up in response to industrialisation, and that everything should be done to accelerate economic development and eliminate impediments to trade. “Medicine cannot turn aside from this problem,’ the article said.