Lost: half a billion Chinese
A note of demographic interest for exporters.
Here's an item of interest to exporters (he typed, really just wanting to promote this story for its pub quiz appeal).
The UN has just completed a census of censuses around the globe, which it's used to estimate the planet's population in 2010 and, more intriguingly, in 2100 (hat tip to the Economist, where I first saw this story covered; see also the UN's website - and, if you tire of the below survey, check out this more wigged-out UN effort, which looks at possible population scenarios for the year 2300).
It seems world population growth - while still rising - peaked in the 1980s at 88 milllion per year. Today it's 75 million per year. By 2050, the UN reckons it will have fallen to 40 million.
Sometime in October, the number of humans in the world, which has doubled in the past 50 years, will top 7 billion. By 2100, it will have only grown relatively modestly to 10.1 billion to declining fertility rates in most areas - a consequence of (relatively, speaking) growing wealth and in some countries (notably China, with its one-child policy) government intervention.
Some of the projections seem extreme, but The Economist reckons on balance they're probably right:
10 MOST POPULOUS COUNTRIES
2010
1. China: 1.341 billion
2. India: 1.225 billion
3. United States: 310 million
4. Indonesia: 240 million
5. Brazil: 195 million
6. Pakistan: 174 million
7. Nigeria: 158 million
8. Bangladesh: 149 million
9. Russia: 143 million
10. Japan: 127 million
2100
1. India: 1.551 billion
2. China: 941 million
3. Nigeria: 730 million
4. United States: 478 million
5. Tanzania: 316 million
6. Pakistan: 261 million
7. Indonesia: 254 million
8. Congo: 212 million
9. Philippines: 178 million
10. Brazil: 177 million
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Lost: half a billion Chinese
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