World Population Increases Sharply

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30534, 1 September 1964, Page 10

World Population Increases Sharply

(N:z. Press Assn.—Copyright)

NEW YORK, August 31. The world’s population is soaring upward, and so is the rate of increase. The annual increase now amounts to 2.1 per cent a year, the highest rate of population growth yet observed, says the United Nations. Three years ago figures released by the United Nations statistical office showed that the annual population increase was 46,000,000 —the population of France. Today it is as though a new France and a new Czechoslovakia were added each year. Even the total population of these two nations is somewhat short of the actual yearly world increase—--63,000,000. In 1961 the United Nations reported an annual rate of increase of 1.7 per cent a year. In 1962 it said the increase rate was 1.8. Last year the rate was given as 2.0. This phenomenon has given serious concern to United Nations planners, who have warned that efforts to battle

poverty in the poorer nations could be wiped out by the increases.

In the region with the fastest population growth, middle America, including the Caribbean, the annual increase has been 2.9 per cent since 1958, according to the population study. In South America and South-east Asia the annual rate is 2.7 per cent and in South-west Asia it is 2.6.

Among the underdeveloped countries, Mauritania shows a population increase of 5.1 her cent, Burundi 4.9, Costa Rica 4.3, Greenland 4.0, Mali 3.9, Vietnam 3.7, Dominican Republic 3.6, and Nicaragua 3.5. Many others have ratios above 3 per cent. In contrast, the United States, with a population in mid-1962 of 186,656,000, has an annual rate of increase of 1.6 per cent, which is also the rate for all North America. For Europe as a whole the rate is 0:9 per cent. In absolute numbers the largest regional increase was in East Asia, where there are now 74 million more people than in 1958. In mid-1962, the study said, the earth-population was 3,135,000,000. The latest figures are contained in the Demographic Yearbook, 1963, a regularly issued compilation of statistics covering 250 geographical areas.

At least 20 per cent of the world’s population now lives in the country with the most people—China. However, the statistical office says the estimates of 670 to 680 million for China are semi-official. The Chinese have not had a census since 1953 and the one held then was not accurate. Estimates for mid-1962 for the other nine nations with the largest populations are (in millions): India 449, Soviet Union 221, United States 187, Indonesia 98, Pakistan 97, Japan 95, Brazil 75, Federal Republie of Germany 55, and United Kingdom 53. About two-thirds of the world's people /live in these 10 nations.