Do you believe that China has the largest population on the planet and is continuing to increase ahead of all other nations? If you listen to all the reports in the press you might well. But you would be wrong. Yes, China's population is growing at a rapid rate, but did you know that it's predicted that by 2050 India will displace China from first place in terms of numbers of humans. Bet you didn't see that coming.
   Here's another fact. Pakistan currently has a population of about 140 million. By 2050 it will have more than doubled to about 320 million. In fact it's predicted that almost all population increases will take place in less developed regions. So, from a population of about 6.5 billion in 2006 now, where will the world be in 2050?
   Well, every second, taking into account both births and deaths, there are about 2.5 additional humans on this planet (actually it's estimated to be 2.4452 to be precise). Doesn't sound like too much does it? Well, let's extrapolate some figures. That means there are more than 146 new souls every minute. That's 8,800 every hour, 211,000 every day and 1.5 million every week - which means 77 million new people inhabit the planet every year.
   That's the equivalent each year of a new Turkey (pop. 70 million), or a new Ethiopia (pop. 75 million), or a new Egypt (pop. 79 million), or a new Germany (pop. 82 million), and so on. Or put another way, in two years it's another Bangladesh (pop. 147 million), in three years it's another Idonesia (pop. 245 million), or in four years it's another U.S.A. (pop. 300 million).

   So, going back to the previous question, what will the world's population be in 2050? The answer is a staggering almost 10 billion people! Now consider how many of our current world citizens are starving or malnourished etc?
   The UN says that 850 million people are malnourished and that 1.1 billion people don't have access to safe drinking water. And yet it's those poorly developed regions where most of the population growth will come from. Obviously there's a problem here.
   Additionally, with half the world's oil now used up many countries are turning from food crops to biodiesel or ethanol to power their vehicles. The UN estimates that 160 acres of land are required to feed each person (although improvements in farming are reducing this) - this is mainly because of growing animals for meat. If we were all vegetarian it would be much less (but that's another story). So it really seems many factors are coming together and creating a potential disaster in the making.
   And there are no easy answers or solutions to this problem. Each country must tackle the situation their own way, possibly with the assistance of the developed nations (some of which such as the U.S.A. are also rapidly growing in population too).
   Just what is the point of another 3.5 billion people on this planet by 2050 if they will mostly be malnourished, thirsty and miserable?

- Robin Nixon