ABSTRACT
Four-fifths of the global population live in the countries of the Third World. In recent years 95 per cent of the 90 million people born in the world each year have been in Third World countries. These high proportions have come about through persistent high rates of population increase during the second half of the twentieth century, largely the result of declining death rates and continuing high, though now generally falling, birth rates. National rates of natural increase range between 1.5 and 3.5 per cent per annum, rates at which a population will more than double within 40 to 20 years (see Figure 3.1; Table 3.1). In contrast, in the more developed parts of the world natural increase is now mostly below 1.0 per cent per annum, and it would take more than a hundred years for a population to double in size. Projected annual rate of population growth, 1989–2000 https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203754092/06944f7e-d722-42c7-900a-4004781a938b/content/fig3_1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Source of data: World Bank, 1992 Global and regional population indices https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
Population (millions) 1992
Average annual rate of growth (%) 1980–92
Total fertility rate, 1992
Expectation of life at birth (years) 1992
Birth rate (per 000) 1992
Death rate (per 000) 1992
Area (000 km2)
Density (per km2)
World
5438
1.7
3.1
66
25
9
111,306
48
Sub-Saharan Africa
543
3.0
6.1
52
44
15
23,066
21
East Asia and Pacific
1689
1.6
2.3
68
21
8
16,369
102
South Asia
1178
2.2
4.0
60
31
10
5,133
224
Eastern Europe and Central Asia
495
1.0
2.2
70
16
10
2,314
212
Middle East and North Africa
256
3.1
4.9
64
34
8
11,015
22
Latin America and Caribbean
452
2.0
3.0
68
26
7
20,507
22
High-income countries
828
0.7
1.7
77
13
9
31,709
26
Source of data: World Bank, 1994a