ABSTRACT
Easily the most startling feature of modern world population growth has been its spatial divergence. Annual rates of growth at a continental scale currently vary from 2. 9 per cent in Africa to 0.3 per cent in Europe. At subcontinental scales, western and northern Europe show rates of 0.1 per cent, while western and eastern Africa show 3.1 per cent. The effect of such differentials over time has been to produce a remarkable shift in the geographical balance of the world's population.
