Observed for the first time in 1989, World Population Day falls on 11 July every year. The day aims to raise awareness about sustainable existence by drawing attention to the population’s role in it and linked factors like size, ageing, rate of growth and so on, according to the United Nations. It further aims to start a dialogue and address urgent issues related to world population.
Twenty years ago in 1994, 179 governments had come together to emphasize the role of reproductive health and gender equality in achieving sustainable existence. This year, there has been a call for global attention to those issues discussed by the International Conference on Population and Development that still remain unresolved.
According to UN estimates, 83 million people are added to the global population annually. World population is expected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100.
When it comes to India, current population stands at 133 crores, and it’s on its way to become the world’s most populous country with 1.6 billion by 2050. Both birth and death rates are very high in the country, according to this report, higher than in many other countries. Birth rate refers to the number of children born per thousand people annually. Death rate is the number of people dying per thousand in a year.
The same report points out that in 2000, India’s birth rate was at 25.8 per thousand while the death rate was 8.5 per thousand. This was in contrast with England’s birth rate of 12 and death rate of 11 and USA’s birth rate of 15 and death rate of 8.
Additionally, it is interesting to note that an average woman’s fertility rate in India dropped from 5.6 in 1969 to 3.7 in 1994 to 2.3 in 2019, reportedly. Improvement in the life expectancy at birth was also noted - from 60 years in 1994 to 69 years in 2019.
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