ABSTRACT
In the early 1990s the World Bank shocked the international community by projecting an exponential growth in world population from an actual total of 5300million in 1990 to 6000million in 2000 and 8400million in 2025. Fears of such a population time bomb exploding this century now appear groundless. A recent United Nations report revealed that fertility levels, already low in Europe (an average 1.5 babies per woman and as low as 1.1 in Spain, Italy and Greece), are now falling in the developing world. Thirty years ago women in Thailand were bearing five children on average while in 2003 this stood at just two. In Islamic Iran it has fallen from 6.5 to 2.75 since the early 1980s and continues to decline. This is important since if average global fertility only declines to 2.5 by the end of the twenty first century then world population would, mathematically expand to a barely believable 276000million.
