World Population Day: Some facts about world’s booming population

When the World Population Day was established in the year 1989, the world population was recorded at a little over 5 billion. Today, the global population stands at 7.5 billion.

Although there has been a significant decline in fertility rate since the World Population Day was marked to address the issues that emerge from an ever-growing population of the world, nearly 80 million people are added to the world’s population every year. To bring attention to the issues relating to population, July 11, is celebrated as World Population Day. This year, the theme of World Population Day 2017 is ‘Family Planning: Empowering People, Developing Nations.

It is a known fact that India stands second in the list of most populous countries.

WORLD POPULATION DAY IN FACTS

• In 1000 AD, the world population was only 400 million.
• By 1804, the world population reached 1 billion.
• The world population reached 7,400,000,000 on February 6, 2016.
• Today, the world population stands at 7,500,000,000.
• The top five most populous (approximately) countries are
  China: 1,384,200,000
  India: 1,318,350,000
  The United States of America: 325,386,000
  Indonesia: 263,991,000
  Brazil: 207,718,000
• Five least populous countries/territories are
  Vatican City: 801
  Nauru: 10,084
  Tuvalu: 10,640
  Palau: 17,950
  San Marino: 33,121
• Nearly 80 million people are added to the world’s population every year.
• By the year 2100, the population of the world would be approximately 11.2 billion.
• The 7th million baby was born at 07:25 local Indian time in Mall village, Uttar Pradesh. She was named Baby Nargis.
• Nearly 52 percent of the world population is under 30 years old.
• Every second, there are 4.3 births and 1.8 deaths.
• If Facebook was a country, it would be the most populous in the world. Every month, 1.39 billion people log into their accounts on Facebook.
• In 1800, only 3 percent of the world population lived in cities.
• By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in cities.
• In 1900, there were only 12 cities around the world with a population of 1 million.
• Today, there are nearly 400 cities. 19 cities of the 400 have a population of nearly 10 million.

Today, the United Nations through World Population Day seeks to “focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues” with the theme Family Planning. On UN’s page for World Population Day, it reads: “Around the world, some 225 million women who want to avoid pregnancy are not using safe and effective family planning methods, for reasons ranging from lack of access to information or services to lack of support from their partners or communities. Most of these women with an unmet demand for contraceptives live in 69 of the poorest countries on earth.”

To curb the growing population of the world, many countries have come forward with creative ideas to promote the important pieces of information on safe sex, family planning and spacing out births. The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh have decided to launch ‘Nayi Pahal’ on World Population Day under which it will gist free condoms and contraceptives to the newlywed couples.