The number of inhabitants of the planet reached this Tuesday, November 15, at least 8,000 million people, according to a projection by the United Nations Organization. Much of the growth is coming from Africa’s poorest countries, where resources are already stretched thin. The upward trend threatens to leave thousands of people in developing countries even further behind.
Millions of people compete for livelihood resources every day, from space on overcrowded buses to electricity to light their homes. This is the current scenario in Lagos, Nigeria, which with 15 million inhabitants is one of the most populous cities in Africa.
And that panorama is on the way to worsen with the increase in the world population that this Tuesday, November 15, reached the milestone of 8,000 million people, according to an estimate by the United Nations.
Most of that increase comes from developing countries in Africa. Nigeria is among the eight nations that, according to the UN, will account for more than half of the growth in the number of inhabitants globally between now and 2050, along with other countries on that continent such as Congo, Ethiopia and Tanzania.
Over the next three decades, Nigeria’s population is expected to grow even more: from 216 million in 2022 to 375 million, making the West African country the fourth most populous on the planet after India, China and USA.
“We are already overloading what we have: houses, roads, hospitals, schools. Everything is overloaded,” said Gyang Dalyop, an urban planning and development consultant in Nigeria.
Poverty, food insecurity and climate change, among the challenges due to the increase in the world population
The upward trend threatens to leave millions of people in developing countries further behind, as governments already struggle to provide enough classrooms and jobs for a growing number of children and young people.
Under this umbrella, food insecurity, poverty and climate change become even more urgent problems to solve.
The population in many sub-Saharan African countries is projected to double between 2022 and 2050, putting additional pressure on already limited resources and challenging policies aimed at reducing poverty and inequalities. .
Rapid population growth means more people are competing for scarce water resources and food. As climate change increasingly affects crop production in many parts of the world, more families are facing famine.
“There is increased pressure on the environment, which increases the challenges for food security that are also exacerbated by climate change (…) Reducing inequality while focusing on climate change adaptation and mitigation must be the focus of our policymakers,” emphasized Dr. Srinath Reddy, President of the Public Health Foundation of India
Access to education also enters the race for survival, amid rapid population growth.
In Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, home to more than 12 million people, many families struggle to find affordable housing and pay school fees. While primary school students attend for free, older children’s chances depend on their parents’ income.
“My children took turns” going to school. “Two studied while others waited for money. If they didn’t have so many children, they would have finished their studies on time,” said Luc Kyungu, a Kinshasa truck driver who has six children.
According to the UN, the population in sub-Saharan Africa is growing at a rate of 2.5% per year, more than triple the world average. Some of that can be attributed to people living longer, but family size is still the determining factor. Women in sub-Saharan Africa on average have 4.6 births, double the current global average of 2.3.
It is a situation that contributes to the high rate of pregnancies of girls and young women at an early age: 4 out of 10 girls in Africa are married before they turn 18, according to UN figures. The teen pregnancy rate on the continent is the highest in the world: about half of children born to mothers under 20 years of age globally in 2021 were in sub-Saharan Africa.
Still, experts say the biggest threat to the environment is consumption, which is highest in developed countries that don’t experience large population increases.
“Global evidence shows that a small portion of the world’s population uses most of the Earth’s resources and produces most of its greenhouse gas emissions (…) During the last 25 years, the richest 10% of the world’s population has been responsible for more than half of all carbon emissions,” said Poonam Muttreja, executive director of the Population Foundation of India.
The UN study projects that by 2030 the world’s population will reach about 8.5 billion people. A figure that will then increase to approximately 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion in 2100.
Other countries rounding out the list with the fastest growing populations include Egypt, Pakistan, the Philippines and India, which will overtake even China as the world’s most populous nation next year.
With AP and EFE
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