Population Dynamics
As of the year 2011, seven billion people now live on Earth. Much has to be done in order to reduce poverty, to provide universal access to health care and family planning, and to decrease our high consumption of resources. This is where DSW steps in with its development programmes and advocacy work.
Many women give birth to more children than they want due to a lack of contraceptives and effective family planning. With the implementation of our Youth-to-Youth Initiative, we are educating thousands of young people in Africa about their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and on how to create a healthy and independent future for themselves.
Furthermore, DSW's comprehensive advocacy work is done by talking to and engaging with national, local and international political authorities. In our dialogue we advocate for the necessity of voluntary family planning and reproductive health.
Projections
The future development of the world's population is not a question of fate, but can be controlled. Even minimal differences in the average number of children per woman may have a significant effect on future population dimensions.
Every two years, the UN population division publishes its latest estimates on the future development of the world population. The different variants of the World Population Prospects mainly differ in the underlying assumptions on the future development of birth rates; the average number of children per woman is a crucial factor.
In their latest Revision of World Population Prospects, the United Nations have assumed that the average number of children of currently 2.5 per woman worldwide will decrease globally below the so-called replacement rate (2.1) to two children per woman by 2100. According to this estimate, world population would grow to 10.1 billion people by 2100.
How many people will live on earth?
If the average number of children per woman were to increase by 0.5, world population would grow to 15.8 billion by 2100 (high variant). With a decrease of 0.5 children, there would even be a decrease in population, and only 6.2 billion people would live on earth in 2100 (low variant).
Assuming that the number of children per woman were to remain constant at the current level until 2100, world population would grow to almost 27 billion people at the turn of the century.
