Overpopulationis a condition where an organism's numbers exceed the carrying capacity of its habitat. In common parlance, the term often refers to the relationship between the human population and its environment, the Earth.
Overpopulation does not depend only on the size or density of the population, but on the ratio of population to available sustainable resources. It also depends on the way resources are used and distributed throughout the population. Overpopulation can result from an increase in births, a decline in mortality rates due to medical advances, from an increase in immigration, or from an unsustainable biome and depletion of resources. It is possible for very sparsely populated areas to be overpopulated, as the area in question may have a meager or non-existent capability to sustain human life.
Rising population growth can lessen our quality of life because it:
- destroys resources, such as water and forests, needed to sustain us
- slows the dynamics of a healthy economy
- decreases the level of biodiversity upon which we depend.
As the century begins, natural resources are under increasing pressure, threatening public health and development. Water shortages, soil exhaustion, loss of forests, air and water pollution, and degradation of coastlines afflict many areas. As the world’s population grows, improving living standards without destroying the environment is a global challenge.
Most developed economies currently consume resources much faster than they can regenerate. Most developing countries with rapid population growth face the urgent need to improve living standards. As we humans exploit nature to meet present needs, are we destroying resources needed for the future?
As the New Century begins, Natural Resources are under increasing pressure, threatening Public Health and Development.
Most developed economies currently consume resources much faster than they can regenerate. Most developing countries with rapid population growth face the urgent need to improve living standards. As we humans exploit nature to meet present needs, are we destroying resources needed for the future?
As the New Century begins, Natural Resources are under increasing pressure, threatening Public Health and Development.
Many areas are afflicted by,
- Water shortages
- Soil exhaustion
- Loss of forests
- Air and water pollution
- Degradation of coastlines etc.
As the world's population grows, improving living standards without destroying the Environment is a Global challenge.
Most developing countries with rapid population growth face the urgent need to improve living standards.
As we exploit the nature to meet the present needs, we are destroying the resources needed for the future.
Environment Getting Worse
In the past decade in every environmental sector, conditions have either failed to improve, or they are worsening.
Public Health
- Unclean water along with poor sanitation, kills over 12 million people each year. Water pollution is a serious problem everywhere.
- Air pollution kills nearly 3 million people. Air pollution, already a serious problem in cities, is becoming worse as urban population grow and the number of motor vehicles rises.
- Heavy metals and other contaminants also causes health problems
Food Supply
- In most developing countries, the population has been growing faster than food supplies.
- Population pressures have degraded some 2 billion hectares of cultivable land- an area the size of USA and Canada put together.
Freshwater
- Supply of fresh water is limiting, since the demand is soaring as population grows and per-capita use rises.
- By 2025, when world population is projected to be 8 billion, nearly 48 countries containing 3 billion people will face freshwater shortages
Coastlines and Oceans
- Half of all coastal ecosystems are pressured by high population densities and urban development
- A tide of pollution is rising in the world's seas
- Ocean fisheries are being overexploited and fish catches are down
Forests
- Nearly half of the world's original forest cover has been lost.
- Each year millions of hectares of forests are cut, bulldozed or burned
- Forests provide over 400 billion US$ to the world economy annually and are vital to maintaining healthy ecosystems
- Current demand for forest products may exceed the limit of sustainable consumption by 25%
Bio-diversity
- Earth's biological diversity is crucial to the continued vitality of Agriculture and Medicine, and perhaps even to life on Earth itself
- Human activities are pushing many thousands of plant and animal
- Species into extinction
- Two of every three species is estimated to be in decline
Global climate change
- The Earth's surface is warming due to greenhouse gas emissions, largely from burning fossil fuels.
- If the global temperature rises as projected, sea levels would rise by several meters, causing widespread flooding.
- Global warming also cause droughts and disrupt agriculture
Poverty
- During the 1990's the people in poverty increased by about 1 billion
- By 2000 that number had risen to about 3 billion- almost half of the world's population
STABILIZING POPULATION
- The last four decades have witnessed a profound change in Fertility rates and world population growth.
- Demographic Transition: The transition from high fertility and high mortality to low fertility and low mortality has been
- substantially completed in the developed world and is underway in most of the developing world.
- But in many countries of Africa and Asia, population continues to growing at 2% a year or faster and the average women, bears 4-6 children.
- Even small increases in the fertility rates- which could occur if commitment to providing family planning services, information, supplies, etc were to diminish- would mean faster population growth.
- Worries about a "population bomb" may have lessened as fertility rates have fallen, but the world's population is projected to continue expanding until the middle of the century.
- While population growth has slowed, the absolute number of people continues to increase-by about 1 billion every 13 years.
- Slowing population growth would help improve living standards and would buy time to protect natural resources.
- In the long run, to sustain higher living standards, world population size must stabilize.
POPULATION STATUS
- World Population [2000 A.D]; 7 Billion {700 Crore}
- India’s Population [2000 A.D]; 1 Billion {100 Crore}
- India’s Population [2004]; 102.8 Crore
- India’s Population is expected to exceed China’s population in 2035.
- Expected Population in 2035; 146 Crores
- Current Annual Growth Rate; 1.94
Most populous States in India
- U.P : 166 million
- Maharashtra : 97 million
- Bihar : 83 million
- West Bengal : 80 million
- Tamil Nadu : 63 million
Lakshadweep has the lowest population of 61000
Literacy Rate in Tamil Nadu : 73.45 %
Literacy Rate in India : 64.8 %
CBR in Tamil Nadu : 19/1000population
With the World Population Day just gone by (on July 11), here is the list of 20 most populated nations in the world and their population (as on 15 July 2010 or as indicated otherwise).
The population of the world is estimated to be around 6.8 billion and is expected to reach 25 billion by 2050.
- 1. China : Tops the list with a population of 1,338,650,000 which amounts to around 19.53% of the total world population. The figures are according to the statistics provided by the Chinese Official Population Clock & excludes Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
- 2. India : Comes next with a population of 1,183,416,000 which amounts to approximately 17.26% of the world population. The figures have been provided by the Indian Official Population Clock.
- 3. United States : A distant third with a population of 309,738,000 - roughly 4.52% of the total world population. The figures have been provided by the United States Official Population Clock.
- 4. Indonesia : Population of 234,181,400 which is around 3.42% of the total world population. The number is according to Statistics Indonesia provided in July 2010.
- 5. Brazil : Population 193,223,000 2.82% approx. of world population. The figure has been provided by the Brazilian Official Population Clock.
- 6. Pakistan : Population 170,013,500 2.48% approx. of world population, according to the Official Pakistani Population Clock.
- 7. Bangladesh : Population 162,221,000. The figure is an UN estimate and comes to 2.37% of the world population.
- 8. Nigeria : Population 154,729,000 (based on UN Estimate). 2.26% of the world population.
- 9. Russia : Population 141,927,297 (as on 1 January 2010, number provided by Federal State Statistics Service of Russia).
- 10. Japan : Population of 127,380,000 (as on 1 June 2010), Japan is 10th in the list. The figures have been provided by Official Japan Statistics Bureau.
- 11. Mexico : Population 108,396,211 (as per 1 July 2010 figure provided by INEGI and National Population Statistics of Mexico). This is roughly 1.58% of the world population.
- 12. Philippines : Population 94,013,200 (an estimated 1.37% of the world population) according to National Statistics Office medium projection.
- 13. Vietnam : Population 85,789,573 (1.25% of world population).
- 14. Germany : Population 81,757,600 (based on 1 January 2010 Eurostat estimate). This is only 1.19% of the world population.
- 15. Ethiopia : Population 79,221,000 (as per July 2008 statistics from Ethiopia Central Statistics Agency). The figure is equivalent to 1.16% of the total world population.
- 16. Egypt : Population 78,720,000 which is around 1.15% of the world population. The figures are from the Official Egyptian Population clock.
- 17. Iran : Population 74,196,000 (1.08% of world population). UN-estimated.
- 18. Turkey : Population 72,561,312 (as on 31 December 2009). This comes to around 1.06% of the world population. Turkish Statistical Institute.
- 19. Democratic Republic of Congo : Population 66,020,000 (0.96% of world population). UN-estimated population.
- 20. France : Population of 65,447,374 (this is an Official INSEE estimate provided on 1 January 2010 and comes to 0.95% of the world population).
