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Population Dynamics
Afghanistan
25.8 million people. Annual growth rate is 2.5%. Only 24% of
primary-school-age children attended classes. 48% of children under 5 are
underweight and 50% have a chance of stunted growth. Children are at risk
for vitamin A deficiency, while surveillance for polio is improving.
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The Population Slide Scientific American Oct 98 . There's hope! Average birthrate for Bangladeshi women has dropped from 7 in 1975 to three. (Unfortunately, there are now large numbers of women of child-bearing age). Bangladesh is still one of the 20 poorest countries in the world, it's sudden drop in birth rate usually occurs in countries in an advance stage of development. Reasons given: the government's intensive family-planning program; the drop in infant mortality which provides incentive to have fewer children; micro-credit programs giving credit for start-up of small ventures (with required resolutions to have smaller families); the war with Pakistan which pushed many women into manual labor, thus giving them control over their lives, and the big change in the status of women due to health care and education; and lastly, Bangledeshi radio providing 6 hours of heath and family-planning programming a day. Bangladesh is the most densely populated countries in the world. USAID has helped considerably with the family planning program here. There are still challenges, especially in rural areas, where the feudal system still holds sway, encouraging large families to build up the clan.
Bangladesh, though a secular country, allows family life to be governed by religious personal law. This brings most women under Islamic Law, which denies a woman tobe the legal guardian of her own child. A divorced woman can have the physical custody of a boy till he is seven years old, when he must go to his father to learn "the manners of men". A girl can stay with her mother till she reaches puberty, when she develops a "carnal appetite" and must be placed under her father's supervision. Even within marriage, it is the husband who decides how many children she will bear, regardless of her wishes. The government has taken cautious steps to give women parity in a draft Uniform Personal Code but, as the law minister Abdul Khasru admits "...it is not possible for a democratic government to ...hurt the religious faith of the people". BOL
The potential for future growth is tremendous. Bangladesh now has 126 million people. Remarkably, the country has brought it's birth rate down from 3% in 1973 to 1.6% in 1999. Population stabilization at 170 million, is expected in 40-45 years - if replacement level -2 children per woman -is reached by 2005. More realistically, population will stabilize at 200-250 million in 2050. By 2000-2005 22% of the population will be 10-19, while the elderly population will be 7.7% in 2000 and 9.1% in 2010. About 50% of Bangladeshi live in poverty and the same number is illiterate. UNFPA
The government wants to bring down the population growth rate to 1.2% from 1.6% by raising the number of couples under the family planning program from 51% to 71% in the current 1999-2000 fiscal year, seeing the need to set up condom, pill and plastic coil factories to make contraceptives easily available . The government also wants to reduce the infant and mother mortality rate from 4.3 to 2.6 per 1,000 during the period. Bangladesh has a population of about 126 million, 43% of them below 15 years old. Under the UNFPA's most optimistic assumption, the country's population would reach 170 million when stabilization of population happens in 40-45 years' time and if the level for replacement - two children per couple - is reached. January 12, 2000 Xinhua
Discussion on Safe Motherhood Held: 70% of Women Suffer from Malnutrition in Bangladesh, according to a UN Population Fund (UNFPA) country representative. Also, violence against women, including domestic violence, is a serious problem in Bangladesh. Professor Nurun Nabi said that ensuring reproductive rights and safe motherhood should include population planning, education, poverty alleviation, gender equality and male participation. July 13, 2000 Washington Post
Dhaka to Turn into 4th Largest City in World by 2015. After an increase of 9 more million people, to reach a population of 23 million, the sprawling capital of Bangladesh, will become the fourth largest megacity in the world in fifteen years, according to the September 2000 Population Bulletin of the Population Reference Bureau (PRB). Only Bombay India, Tokyo Japan and Lagos Nigeria will be larger. There are approximately 292 "million-plus" cities in less developed countries. This number is expected to nearly double to 564 in 15 years. Sao Paulo, Karachi, Mexico [City], Delhi, New York and Jakarta will be the 5th through 10th largest cities. Unplanned development of big cities depletes non-renewable natural resources and contributes to climate change. Ensuring drinking water, electricity, sanitation and waste management pose a constant challenge to urban authorities in big cities of the undeveloped world. Rampant city growth is said to lead to urban poverty, and inequality, which in turn could spark a weakening of the state, civil unrest, urban terrorism, crime, violence and radical religious fundamentalism. November 10, 2000 Xinhua
Cambodia
Population reached 11.4 million in 1999, having doubled in the last 36
years. The average annual growth rate of 2.5% is higher than neighboring
Vietnam's 1.8% and Thailand's 1.0% and marginally lower than Laos' 3%. 84%
of the population are rural. 42.8% are under age 15. About 64% of the
children ages 7 to 14 attend schools. Cambodia's territory is 181,035 square
kilometers and it's density is 64 persons per square kilometer. September 14 1999 Xinhua
Only 2% of villages have schooling facilities, and just 40% have access to
safe drinking water.
Agence France-Presse, 19 Oct.
China
China's official Family Planning web site
China Online list of Breaking China News
| China's Population | |
| 1953 | 587.96 million |
| 1964 | 704.99 million |
| 1982 | about 1 billion |
| 1990 | 1.13 billion |
| 2000 | 1.27 billion |
| Los Angeles Times March 29, 2001 | |
China Predicts No More than 1.4 Billion People by 2010. China has vowed to keep up strict family planning controls to ensure its vast population does not exceed 1.4 billion by the year 2010 so that it does not become a major obstacle to the country's economic development. An increase of 10 million per year is expected over the next decade peaking at 1.6 billion around 2050. China has an estimated 1.25 to 1.3 billion people. China's working population would reach 900 million in the next few decades, leading to a rise in unemployment. The number of elderly people (over 60), would rise from just 130 million this year to an estimated 439 million in 2050 25% of the population. Urban families who exceed the one child limit could face penalties such as being fired or fined at state-run enterprises, being forced to pay higher school fees and health costs, and being refused the right to register a second child. Rural families are allowed to have two children as long as the first child was a girl. Forced sterilization campaigns in some rural villages have been documented. November 6, 2000 Agence France Presse
China considers it's family-planning program a success. Birth rate is now at 1.8 (belying the severity of the one-child rule). Abortions are not pushed as they once were and other forms of family planning are prefered. More flexible policies have been introduced that allow farmers to freely choose what form of contraception they use. Couples in urban areas are finding advantages to having smaller families.
There are 120 men for every 100 women. Normally, 106 baby boys are born for every 100 girls. Foreign groups blame the one-child policy for encouraging couples who want sons to abort female fetuses or kill baby girls. Tens of millions of men remain unmarried and childless.
China adds an estimated 14 million people each year, more than the population of Florida. China women have just 2.5 children each, on average - down from 5 children each in 1970. Some minorities are allowed as many as 4 children per couple. The average Chinese earns $800 a year. Chinese people are eating more meat, buying private cars, burning more coal, using more water, cutting more trees and dumping more waste. The amount of land, farmland, and grassland water resources per person is less than 1/3 of the global average and forest and oil resources are only 1/10 of the world's average. Only 7% of China is arable land.September 15, 1999 MSBC
China has 20% of the world's population but just 7% of its arable land.
China's Arable Land Shrinks in 1999. According to a report by China's State Environmental Protection Administration, China's arable land shrank by 842,000 hectares in 1999. 24.4% of the shrinkage was due to agricultural construction projects, 46.9% to ecological damage. 12.8% to agricultural restructuring, and 16% to damage by natural disasters. On the other hand, and increase in arable land by 405,000 hectares was accomplished by land reclamation, reorganization and restoration, leaving a net loss of 437,000 hectares, which was 175,000 hectares more than the 1998 figure. JH ... June 6, 2000 China Online
30% of China's population is urban. China expects to have a total urban
population of 630 million and an urbanization rate of 45% by 2010. Shanghai
is the largest city in China, with a total area of 61 million square
kilometres and a population of more than 11 million. The number of cities
has grown from 132 in 1949 to 668 today and the urban percent of the
population has grown from 12% to 30%. The country's urbanization development
strategy has been to control the development of large cities and give
rational development to small and medium-sized cities. Cities account for
18% of the country's total land area, as against 7.6% in 1984. Uneven
economic development has resulted in an uneven distribution of cities
between eastern and western China. China has 9 out of 10 of the world's most
polluted cities, is the 2nd largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, and
respiratory diseases are the leading cause of death. Acid rain falls on
nearly one-third of the country. Dust from coal-burning stoves cakes cars
and clothing. 70 % of the rivers are drying up because of industrial or
agricultural diversions while many contain no fish due to pollution and
others that used to freeze in winter now run free, because of warm
industrial discharge. Excessive logging has caused soil erosion and
increased flooding.
The China government seems to recognize the damage to the environment and is
endevoring to do something about it. China still faces pressure from a
shortage of natural resources and pollution, the major problems being the
deterioration of water resources, polluted air, the decline of the functions
of ecological forests, damage to biodiversity, and threats to endangered
species.
China has 13 million vehicles, compared with 500 million bicycles. Of the 1.6 million cars and trucks sold in 1999, under 600,000 were passenger cars. By 2010, passenger car sales are projected to reach 5 million. Educator Li Hao said "Unfortunately, commercialization is overrunning China," ... "Foreign companies come here hoping to make money, and their way of overconsumption has a negative influence on the Chinese people. Papers run misleading articles saying how cool it is to have a car." China Online News June 8, 2000
China Makes Example of Family Planners Suspected of Killing Aborted Child. In China, three family planning officials will be put on trial on suspicion of killing an infant who survived an abortion. Family planners in the countryside outside the central city of Wuhan had persuaded a mentally retarded couple to abort a fourth child when the woman was eight months pregnant. Abortions in China are legal only up through the seventh month of pregnancy. The husband then disposed of the aborted fetus, only for an elderly woman to later find it still alive and rescue it. The child, a boy, was killed, possibly by being drowned in a paddy field. Beijing has set strict birth quotas, which sometimes result in forced abortions, exorbitant fines and other coercive measures. Beijing has tried to move away from birth control by fiat toward providing better education and services to families. November 7, 2000 The Associated Press
China Relaxes One-Child Policy An estimated 60 million people will be allowed to have more than one child, particularly people who were born in single child families. In a survey of young, single, people, most said they would not want several children. China's population growth is now at 0.9%, but the total is still expected to hit 1.3 billion this year and 1.4 billion in 2010 before levelling out at 1.5 - 1.6 billion. The one-child policy was only strictly enforced in four cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing, and two provinces, Sichuan, southwest, and Jiangsu, east, which account for 37% of the population. In other provinces couples can have a second child if the first is a girl, while ethnic minorities may be allowed anywhere from two, four or as many children as they want, as in Tibet. January 31, 2000 Agence France Presse
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China's One-Child Policy
I had a visiting scholar from Beijing work with me for a year. He came to me from the Chinese space agency. A couple of months after his return I was in Beijing for a conference. He was assigned to me as a guide and interpreter, and I got to visit his home, a rare event I was told, I suspect because the Chinese aren't anxious to show how their professional workers live. The reason he gave them to permit my visit was that he had stayed in my home for the duration of his year-long stay here and he told them it would be a terrible disgrace for him not to have me visit his family in his home in Beijing. This was in November of 1988. His wife was a practicing pediatrician and they had a pre-teen child they dearly loved. She owned two dresses, one to wear and one to launder and dry for the next day's work. The high-rise apartment building was old and not very well kept up on the outside, but their small apartment was simply but adequately furnished--very neat, clean, and clearly a good home for the family. I even got to visit the next door neighbor, a short, chubby, jovial woman in her 50s who welcomed me warmly and told me about her family. I asked my friend about the one-child policy and especially about how it was enforced. I was told that the government has many ways of punishing people who do not follow the rules, short of putting them in jail, always a last resort possibility. Since the government assigns housing and provides jobs, a person out of favor could lose his or her job and place to live and be left to fend for themselves, wandering about or searching for family to put them up. I was told that the one-child policy was fairly strictly enforced in the cities, but not so much in the countryside. I was told of the case of a person who lost his job and apartment and basically dropped out, to live a kind of underground existence, possibly as a beggar or such, but I cannot recall the infraction that resulted in this punishment. I don't know if the policy is still as strictly enforced today, but the government clearly has ways of making people obey. This loss of fundamental civil liberties, though seemingly harsh to those of us who treasure our civil liberties, can also be viewed as but a natural consequence of overpopulation. Ross McCluney |
China, The People Bomb. In 1949 Mao Zedong said: "It is a good thing that China has a big population," ... "Even if China's population multiplies many times, she is fully capable of finding a solution." China's leaders are still looking for that solution today, and as the Chinese move up the economic ladder, their problems become the problems of the world. In Mao's time, advocates of population control were put behind bars. Today China, despite it's one child policy, has a fertility rate of 2.5 children per woman and adds about 14 million people a year, more than the population of Florida, or the combined total populations of Norway and Sweden. 350 million women are in their childbearing years and people are living longer. The population may rise to about 1.6 billion by 2050 before leveling off. Chinese people are eating more meat, buying private cars, building skyscrapers, burning more coal, using more water, cutting more trees and dumping more waste. The amount of land, farmland, grassland water resources per individual is less than one-third of the world's average figure and forest and oil resources per capita are just one-tenth. Ho Wai Chi of Greenpeace China says China "must urgently invest in clean production technologies, energy efficiency and renewable energy programs if it is to avoid an environmental meltdown." Worldwatch Institute's Lester Brown thinks the situation in China could lead to an international food crisis. China has remained nearly self-sufficient in grains, supporting one-fifth of the world's population on just one-eighth of the world's arable land. However, the 1980s gains in agricultural productivity are leveling off. After a decade of intensive farming, the high use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides is destroying farmland. Rapidly growing industrial areas are gobbling up 1% of farmland per year. Josh Muldavin, head of developmental studies at University of California Los Angeles, says that "Some of the richest farmland is in areas that are rapidly urbanizing, primarily in the north China plain. The best farmland is being converted." Mostly because of factories, economic growth has been at nearly 10% a year for two decades. Vast armies of people are moving from the countryside. China will likely need to import more grain, and it's entry into the international grain market would raise prices for the entire world market. Industry, rising soaring urban consumption, and agriculture will contend for scarce water supplies, especially in the arid north. Water - the shortage of it in the north, the pollution of it in the south - may be the country's most pressing problem. Coal - dirty, but cheap and plentiful, is behind the soaring rates of asthma and other respiratory disease. It provides about 75% of the country's power supply, and the demand climbs every year. Japan, affected by acid rain from China, has provided scrubbers and other clean-coal technology. Beijing has recently allowed green groups to form for the sake of education, and to monitor industry compliance with regulations. Beijing is rethinking its approach to limiting population growth: "The idea that poor people want more children for security is largely a myth," said Joe Speidel, population expert at the Hewlett Foundation. "Most growth comes from a lack of access to family planning. If people know they have an alternative, most will now choose to have a smaller family." September 8, 2000 MSNBC
Chinese Population Control Workers Detained Over Infant's Death Police have detained three population control officials who caused the death of an infant in central China while enforcing strict birth control rules, reported the China Daily newspaper. A spokesperson, Chen, for the State Family Planning Commission said the incident occurred in Wuhan, 1,000 kilometers south of Beijing. Last month The Times of London claimed family planning officials in Wuhan seized an infant, kicked it, and drowned it in a flooded rice paddy in front of the parents. The article said that the child was the fourth born to the woman, a violation of China's birth control policies. Chen said "Extreme actions in enforcing family planning regulations are prohibited and any violation ... by family planning workers will be severely punished." Urban couples are limited to one child, while rural families are allowed two children if the first is a girl. September 22, 2000 Associated Press
Falling Water Tables in China May Soon Raise Food Prices
Everywhere. By Lester A. Brown
In 1999 the water table under Beijing fell by 2.5 meters (8 feet). Since
1965, the water table under the city has fallen by some 59 meters or nearly
200 feet, warning China's leaders of the shortages that lie ahead as the
country's aquifers are depleted by overpumping. In the northern part of the
country, the demand for water outstrips the supply, water tables are
falling, wells are going dry, streams are drying up, and rivers and lakes
are disappearing. The south, with 700 million people, has 1/3 of the
nation's cropland and 4/5 of its water. The north, with 550 million people,
has 2/3 of the cropland and 1/5 of the water. The water table is dropping by
1.5 meters a year under the North China Plain, which stretches from just
north of Shanghai to well north of Beijing and produces 40% of China's
grain. By 2010, China's population is projected to grow by 126 million, and
the World Bank projects that China's water demand will increase by 60% for
urban usage, and by 62% for industrial usage. In China almost 70% of the
grain harvest comes from irrigated land, whereas in the US, it is only 15%.
In China, a thousand tons of water produces one ton of wheat, worth perhaps
$200. The same water used in industry will expand output by $14,000-70 times
as much. The Yellow River, a major river, ran dry for the first time in
thousands of years in 1972, failing to reach the sea for some 15 days. Until
1985, it then ran dry intermittently. After 1985, it has run dry each year;
in 1997, it failed to reach the sea for 226 days. China is not alone in
facing water shortages. Other countries where water scarcity is raising
grain imports or threatening to do so include India, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt,
Mexico, and dozens of smaller countries. But only China-with nearly 1.3
billion people, a fast-growing economy, and a $40-billion-plus trade surplus
with the United States-has the potential to disrupt world grain markets.
May 2, 2000 World Watch
India
Current population is 1 billion. In 1998 the growth rate was 1.86%, down from 2.2% in the 80's. However, the country's population will continue to grow, adding 18 million people a year, due to the large young population base in the 10-24 age group, approximating 240 million people. The Hindu 1999.
India is running out of natural resources due to population pressures, wasteful consumption trends and the government's failure to formulate a national environmental policy, according to Indian activist Aditi Jindal. Water tables are dropping 3.3 feet to 9.9 feet a year. The result could be less water for irrigation, cutting India's grain harvest by one-fourth and increasing hunger and malnutrition. Forests are also giving way to human settlements and farming. Wood fuel is disappearing.
21 percent of the world population increase is concentrated in India UN Report Nov 98
India has a huge population at 1 billion people and deserves it's own page. Please click here for the India Page
Japan
Japan's population is barely replacing itself. Even though the country is
crowded, polititcians see it as sign that national power is waning. Young
adults in this well-educated, prosperous country are opting to have fewer
children later in life. Birth control pills have only recently been
approved.
According to "Human Fertility-The Modern Dilemma" by Robert C. Cook (Wm. Sloane, NY, 1951) - in 1946 the U.S. occupied Japan after WWI. The occupation had appointed Dr. Edward Ackerman of Harvard to make a study of Japanese natural resources. "In his report, published in December 1949, he pointed out that resource utilization was closely connected with population pressure, and that a rapid increase of population must precipitate a crisis in the Japanese economy." However, the Supreme Commander, Gen. McArthur, refused to help, and suppressed Dr. Ackerman's report. So the Japanese program of education, contraception and abortion was entirely done under the direction of the Birth Control Institute of Tokyo. Abortion was legal in Japan as a "temporary expedient", and widely practiced. These programs had the effect of lowering Japan's growth rate, a pattern has persisted until today.
Indonesia
Indonesia has 207 million people, the world's 4th largest population. It's
growth rate is 1.68% a year. Java, one of its 40,600 islands is smaller than
the state of Florida, yet has a population of 110 million people.
Indonesia's family planning program was begun in the 1970's and from the
beginning focused on village-level health care and education in addition to
dissemination of contraceptives. Half the women of child-bearing age use
contraceptives. The effort is now successful and is shifting from the public
to the private sector. However, with Islamic and local traditions, the
government is reluctant to provide services such as sterilization and
abortion. This factor, and population momentum mean Indonesia is still
growing as much as 1.6% a year. Fertility is expected to stabilize at 2.1
children per women by 2010.
Population pressure is causing slums, deforestation, and poverty. Indonesia is in an economic crises. Loggers are denuding the forests, macaques are being hunted to extinction for rich foreign and hungry local palates. Desparate hunters search for food in the remotest corners. Tigers are poached for Chinese medicine. Indonesia is home to more plant and animal species than anywhere else in the world, other than Brazil. 36% of the 515 mammal species and 28% of 1,519 bird species there are endemic. Rubber and oil-palm plantations are pushing elephants and rhinos into small enclaves where they are malnourished. Dynamite and cyanide fishing is wiping out coral colonies and fish. Wall Street Journal Nov 1999
Indonesia Unveils Family Planning Vision. Quality Family 2015 is Indonesia's program for improving the quality of family life as well as controlling the population growth rate. It seeks to enlist greater participation by men in family planning. Indonesia's average family size has gone from 5.6 children 30 years ago to 2.79 children today. However, maternal and infant mortality rates remain among the highest in Southeast Asia. 7.7 million families live below the poverty line, up from 6.9 million last year because of the prolonged economic crisis. October 31, 2000 Xinhua
Jakarta
Government Strives to Avoid Baby Boom. The State Minister of the Empowerment of Women and chair of the National Family Planning Board, Khofifah Indar Parawansa said that the government is in foreign debt due to the procurement of contraceptives in 1999 alone, and may be seeking cooperation and grants in importing contraceptives. Many lower income couples dropping out of the family planning program due to financial constraints. The Australian government recently donated medical assistance, including medicines, medical equipment and contraception pills, worth a total of AU(USDollar) 5 million. December 27, 1999 The Jakarta Post
Jakarta:Family Planning Program Not Yet Popular
Among Men Of the over 27.7 million active members of family
planning program across the country only about 2% are men, according to the
National Family Planning Board (BKKBN). Men often support the
state-sponsored family planning program, but their participation is low due
to lack of information, the lack of services and facilities for men. Condoms
are perceived as reducing sexual enjoyment, and are associated with
immorality. Vasectomies are even more unpopular due to ignorance of the
procedure and worries that something could go wrong or of not being able to
perform following the surgery. A vasectomy involves minor surgery with a low
possibility of failure and will not affect a man's sexual activity and
desire. It is also less complicated than a tubectomy. The failure rate,
however, is 5 to 9%. Out of 27.1 million women who are taking part in the
program, over 9.7 million prefer injections, while 7.7 million take pills,
5.2 million use IUD, 3.1 million use implants, 1.2 million prefer tubectomy
and 9,957 use vaginal contraceptives. Pakistan's contraceptive prevalence
survey in 1994-1995 showed that out of 17.8% of those taking part in family
planning program, 14.1% of them were using male contraceptive methods.
Bangladesh studies showed a 11.9% male usage. "We aim to increase men's
participation in the family planning program to 10% by the year 2005," said
a spokesperson for the BKKBN. July 20, 2000 Jakarta
Post
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| In Laos, there is no shortage of children |
Laos
The average number of live births per woman in Laos is 6.4. The average
income is $320 per year. There is unemployment. The majority of people in
Laos are farmers, most of whom practice slash and burn agriculture. While
Laos has a very low population density, there are still too many people for
the methods of agriculture employed; i.e. hand labor, one-crop years. The
mountain tops have very few big trees left. A burn will allow one good year
of rice growing. The burned hill can take 20 years to recover. Wildlife is
less plentiful. Laos has the reputation of more agricultural burning per
capita than any other country.
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Improved water supply and antibiotics have lowered the mortality rate |
10 years ago, contraceptive sale in land-locked Laos was banned, and the
communist government promoted population growth. Today, the government wants
to halve the birth rate, and will encourage couples to get married later and
to have only two children. Laos has a population of an estimated 5.3 million
with an annual growth rate of 3.1 per cent - the highest in Southeast and
East Asia. Laos has 80% mountainous terrain, with a large proportion of the
population comprising ethnic minority hilltribe people living in remote
areas. The U.N. has established a 6-million-dollar reproductive health
programme there. The government acknowledges that population growth is the
leading cause of poverty. September 27, 1999 Deutsche
Presse-Agentur
Malaysia
Population is 22.7 Million. 10.7 million are Malay Bumiputeras
(aboriginals), 5.6 million Chinese, 2.5 million other Bumiputeras, 1.6
million Indians and 727,000 others. 1.6 million were non citizens. 33.5% of
the population is under 15 years and only 3.8% are over 65 years. December 23, 1999 Xinhua
Myanmar (Burma)
In 1999, Myanmar's population reached 48 million and its population density
is 70 persons per square kilometers. Myanmar has a total land area of
677,000 square kilometers. The population grows by 1.84% annually and is
estimated to reach 60 million by the year 2010 and 68.5 million by 2020,
Myanmar's Ministry of Immigration and Population predicted.
Nepal
Population in 1999 was 22.5 million. Average births per woman is 4.35. The
average contraceptive prevalence rate is low at 23% (average for South Asia
is 41%). Nepal's population growth rate is about 2.37% per annum. At the
current rate, population will reach 32.2 million by 2016 and 62 million by
2050. Illiteracy, superstition, gender discrimination, lack of women
empowerment, poverty and influx of immigrants contribute to the population
increase. The share of the urban population is 10% and is growing at around
7% annually. Half of the population under 20 years of age. Most of the
population is Hindu.
The population in the hills and mountain exceeded the natural carrying capacity in the first half of the 20th century and subsequently moved to the Tarai region where jungles were replaced by agriculture. carrying capacity, in view of the difficulties of further expanding the Tarai farmland. Now this region's capacity is exceeded because agricultural depends on rainwater. Only about 29 percent of the total cultivated area is under irrigation. During the 1980s, Nepal was a net exporter of food grains. The country is now suffering from a food deficiency. Per capita income is about US$200.
Because infant mortality rates are still high and low-income families see children as a source of income, and because boys are prized over girls, it is not easy to persuade them to accept family planning. Spacing between births is short, resulting in poor health for both mothers and children. Family planning was established in 1958 but has been ineffective. However, numbers have increased from 7,774 people using family planning in 1969, to 340,000 in 1985.
The population pressure on arable land is about seven person/ha. Nepal is predominantly an agricultural country as more than 81 percent of the population depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Land erosion, landslides, decline in soil fertility and lack of suitable employment opportunities are the main contributing factors leading to migration from high Hills to the Tarai and urban areas.
More
on Nepal here.
Report from
Nepal - pop-eco-tourism South Asia Trip, April 2000.
North Korea
Population 22 million. Avg natural rate of increase: 1.45%. Birth rate:
21.4/1000, infant mortality rate 25.5/1000; density per sq. mile: 457.
Arable land 14%. Flooding and drought in 1995, 1996, and 1997 have left
millions malnourished. The population has fallen from 25 million to 22
million. Children are stunted from malnourishment.
UNICEF Says It Lacks Funds for N.Korea Child Projects. Inadequate funding is hampering U.N. efforts to provide crucial vaccinations and medicine to famine-stricken North Korea. "Sixteen-, 15-, 14-year-old girls and boys look like [they are age] 7 or 8." About 62% of the country's school children are underweight for their age. Iodine deficiency affects nearly 20% of North Korean children. IQ's are affected. Flood and drought from the mid-1990s brought famine, which has killed between 1.5 million and 3.5 million of the country's 23 million people since 1995. December 6, 1999 ABC News/Reuters/UnWire
Famine-struck North Korea Reports Another Drought. * North Korea, already dependent on international food aid for survival, reported another drought has hit all parts of the impoverished country, devastating the spring crops. Temperatures in the main rice growing provinces have been six to nine degrees higher than normal for this time of year. Rainfall has been only 20-30% of the average. An estimated 2 million people have died from malnutrition and related diseases since 1995. Pastures have dried up fodder for domestic animals is short. Pyongyang plans to ask for another $250 million under a plan to achieve food self-sufficiency in 2002. The latest harvest yielded 3.4 million tons of milled grain, which combined with 800,000 tons of foreign grain equaled 5 million tons - half a million tons short of the level needed to support the population. *.Link requires subscription (free) June 8, 2000 ENN
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Pakistan Pakistan is the world's seventh most populous country. Its growth rate has slowed from 3% in 1991, to 2.6% in 1997, and 2.3% in 1998. In 1972-73 it was 3.7%. However, gross rate will remain about the since more and more people will be entering the fertile age. 5.5 children are being born per household. 29 million of Pakistan's 134 million population are between 10 and 19 years old. Pakistan has the highest growth rate among the 7 most populous countries of the world. Estimates suggest that currently 43% of the population is under the age of 15 and about 47% of the female population are of reproductive age. The position of women and girls in areas of education, employment opportunities, mortality and health is much lower than for men and boys. Population programs in Pakistan are politically sensitive, thus largely neglected. In years ahead, Pakistan will make the largest contribution to world population after China and India. Pakistan's projected growth from 146 million today to 345 million by 2050 will shrink its grainland per person from 0.08 hectares at present to 0.03 hectares. Environmental Degradation Wears on Pakistan. In Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, stress on the environment and on forest cover in particular is amplifying social problems and creating both an ecological and human crisis, according to a recent study by Richard Matthew, professor of environmental policy and international relations in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of California, Irvine. Overpopulation, corruption, failure of the legal system, lack of funds for environmental programs and an absence of well-established property rights contribute to environmental degradation brought about by the swift removal of the thick Himalayan forests of walnut and pine trees cover. In turn, lack of resources means no jobs, fear and uncertainty, unrest, crisis, and conflict in the province. 3.5 million Afghan refugees came into the area in 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, which placed stressed the equilibrium between humans and the environmental resources. People who own a stand of trees often chop them all down fearing that someone else will take them. The area suffers flooding and severe soil erosion. There is very little arable land. There is up to 90% unemployment. The women in the area gather the wood and water. Foreign aid that could be directed toward the environment is being withheld because Pakistan has been developing nuclear weapons, unpopular among foreign countries. December 5, 1999 ENN Pakistan to Reduce Population Growth Rate The Pakistani government plans to reduce the country's population growth rate from 2.1 percent to 1.9 percent by 2002, according to Secretary of the Ministry of Population Welfare Khawaja Ijaz Sarwar. He said that, to ensure the country's progress and development population growth should be managed by strengthening strengthen the existing health infrastructure. The United Nations Funds for Population Affairs (UNFPA) is helping with the funding. 12,000 village-based workers are working and another 45,000 are coming from the Ministry of Health. By 2003, the total number of health workers would reach 100,000. In a separate article, Pakistan's military-led government on Friday inaugurated a national commission for protecting the interests of women and raising their status in the male-dominated society. The examination of violence against women was recommended as a first task. A 21-member Commission on the Status of Women, made up of female scholars from the country's four provinces as well as senior officials was inaugurated, said Minister for Women's Development, Attiya Inayatullah. She said priority attention should be paid to education and reproductive health care, including access to family planning. Minister for Social Welfare and Special Education, Zubaida Jalal, said the commission "manifests the government's commitment to uplift women and bring them into the mainstream." September 1, 2000; World News/APP/Agence France Presse Pakistan Projected to Have Third Largest Population by 2050. Pakistan's population levels tripled from 1950 to the 1990s to 136 million, and will most likely double again before 2050. With over 40% of the population under age 15, Pakistan is expected to reach over 225 million people within 25 years. Pakistan has about one-twelfth the land area of the United States. "In Pakistan, the biggest negative factor in keeping the population growth rate high is the poor standing of women," said the newspaper Pakistani Dawn. Family planning and female literacy are closely linked. Sri Lanka's female literacy rate is 89% and its population growth rate is 1.2%. In Pakistan, only 28 percent of women are literate and the population is growing at 2.7%, the highest in South Asia. In 1950, South Korea and Pakistan had comparable states of overall development and annual per capita income, about US$80. By 1975, South Korea's average family size had dropped to less than three children while Pakistan had seven children per woman. Pakistan's family size has remained well over five children until recently. By 1999, South Korea's average income reached more than US$10,000 while Pakistan's remained below $500. 100% of the South Korean population have health care services compared to just over half in Pakistan, and one third in rural areas. Today, Pakistan's government is more enlightened and acknowledges the dramatic need for programs and services, but budgetary increases are not keeping pace with growing demand. [Sources: Population Reference Bureau; United Nations World Population Prospects; The News International, Pakistan; "Dawn" News; World Resources 1998-99] |
The Philippines
The Philippines has a population growth rate of 2.3% per year. Current
population is 74.7 million, which could double in 25 years. President Joseph
Estrada has broken with the Catholic Church and is promoting birth control
because "we will always be short of classrooms, of basic services because
our population is too large". When Estrada was born in 1947, the population
was only 14 million.
The Philippines is the 11th largest producer of fish in the world and suffers from overfishing due to population pressures. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) brought a microcredit and family planning to fishing areas in the Phillipines, resulting in an increase in women's incomes and an increase in knowledge of family planning practicies from 56% at the beginning of the project to 90% at the end of the project. Half of the Philippines' 348 major rivers are polluted from discharges from factories, residences and mine tailings. Sierra Club Population web page, 1998
National Report Urges Philippines to Decrease Population Growth Rate. The Philippine government's State of the Philippines Population Report 2000 says that population growth in the Philippines threatens the country's socioeconomic development. Without sufficient family planning, the national population will double to 150.6 million in approximately 35 years. The growth rate has been 2% per year, one of the highest rates in Southeast Asia, while the per capita GNP grew only 1.4% in 1999. Filipinos typically have four children and "one child more than they intended." Nine% of married women want to space births and 11% do not want to have more children, but only 47% use contraception. Abortion is illegal in the Philippines and the fourth leading cause of maternal death in the country. March 14, 2001 Reuters
The Family Planning Organization of the Philippines (FPOP) is planning to promote family planning in rural areas where women's fertility rate remains high at 4.8 children against only 3.5 for urban women. Women in rural areas were found receptive to family planning, but could not observe proper reproductive health practices, such as spacing births, because of lack of access to affordable family planning services. The growth of the rural population results in more hilly lands being cultivated and used as new settlements, which, in turn, causes soil erosion, eventually rendering the important uplands unsuitable for any crops. Low-lying areas in the vicinity also become susceptible to killer floods. 20 million Filipinos occupy 18 million hectares of the country's uplands. The country's total land area is 30 million hectares, and the total population is now 74 million. February 8, 2000 Businessworld (Philippines)
This year (1999) contraceptive use rose among married women aged 15 to 49 to 49.3%, up from 46.5% in 1998. More couples were using the pill and condom, rising from 28.2% to 32.4% in the same period. Traditional methods, such as rhythm and abstinence, went down from 18.3% to 16.9%. The Roman Catholic church's resistence to to artificial contraceptives is being more and more ignored. Poor women in the 20-24 age bracket, about 66%, use the pill. The study of 26,000 respondents showed that women with more education were using contraceptives. December 22, 1999 Associated Press
Philippines: Loggers Reportedly Threaten Biodiversity. The Sierra Madre is the Philippines' largest remaining forest habitat. Here there are the majority of plant and animal species unique to the Philippines. But loggers smuggle timber from the forest; residents near the forest are asking for further development; and increased mining and road construction could further endanger the forest. "If we lose the Sierra Madre, then there's no way Philippine biodiversity can survive the next 10 years," according to Perry Ong of Conservation International. If a proposed measure passes congressional approval, much of the forest will become a national park. Once the most diverse in all of Southeast Asia, Philippine forests have significantly declined in the past 100 years, mostly due to commercial logging and clearing for agriculture.May 31, CNN
Philippines Briefing Book National Library for the Environment
South Korea
Per Capita income: $6251. Cropland per person: 0.05 hectares. South Korea
imports 70% of its grain. To end the poverty and the baby boom that followed
the 1950-53 Korean War, a family planning program in 1961 was instituted
that was aimed at persuading Koreans to "stop at two" children.
Birth-control workers were given regional quotas for births and
sterilizations. Married people with children were urged to volunteer for
sterilization. Contraceptives were distributed. The birthrate dropped
dramatically from 4.51 per woman in the 1970s to 1.56 in
1997. November 6, 1999 Los Angeles Times
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| Bangkok t-shirt |
Thailand
Population 60,609,000. Growth rate 1.6. Fertility rate 1.8. Thailand has had
a very successful family planning program starting in the 1970s. However, it
has lost a third of its forests in the 1980's.
For more information on Thailand family planning and a personal (tourist's) perspective, click here
Thailand Briefing Book National Library for the Environment
The hill tribes of Thailand have a higher birth rate than the rest of Thailand. One of the reasons is that rural people typically lag in contraceptive usage, due to less exposure to education, but also, Christian missionaries are invading the hill people and these religions often discourage birth control. Akha Hill People web page. ... Another Akha activist web site - fighting missionary invasion.
Thailand to Start Sex Education from Kindergarten Level. Thailand will implement a new program aimed at curbing teenage pregnancies and AIDS infections. According to Suwanna Vorakamin of the public health ministry's family planning and population control unit, teachers would be trained to tackle sex education frankly and scientifically, which would help erase the taboo on discussing sex in public. Reaching children at a young age would enable them to delay the start of sexual activity and eliminate the risk of unwanted pregnancy once they became teenagers. Sex education was vital in reducing the rate of abortions and HIV-AIDS transmission Thailand, where the disease has so far infected nearly one in 60 people. July 18, 2000 Agence France Presse
Thailand Registers Slowest Population Growth in Decades Thailand's population, now at 60.6 million, is growing by only 1.05% a year, the lowest rate since the census started in 1960, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said. In 1990, growth was reported at 1.96% a year. Several Thai pundits have questioned whether the country will be able to care for its rapidly growing elderly population, particularly since Thailand has less state social welfare than Japan. [But with a bigger population, will there be enough resources to handle the needs of the population?] August 9, 2000 Agence France Presse
Vietnam
Population on April 1, 1999 was 76.3 million. From 1979 to 1989, the annual
growth rate was 2.1%. From 1989 to 1999 it was 1.7% per year. The average
Vietnamese family had six children in 1965, now it has 2-3. The population
is expected to grow only 1.8 percent next year and to attain zero growth by
2005. The Vietnamese population committee was given the UNFPA award on June
9. A nation of 78 million people, Vietnam has only 0.1 hectares [about
one-quarter acre] of arable land per capita. In 1995, 60% of women were
using contraceptives, mostly supplied by the government. In the city
of Hanoi, a family planning campaign features banners all over the city
about small family size. $87 million of the family planning funds came from
the UNFPA. Life expectancy has risen from 45 in 1960, to 65-70 years
currently. Financial incentives are offered for various family planning
methods, while disincentives, such as higher land rent, are applied to
families with over 2 children. Maternal deaths are high, at 150 for every
100,000 births - 88% of these can be prevented. Vietnam has the highest
abortion rate on earth, according to a study by the Alan Guttmacher
Institute. Abortions are increasing by 3% a year and there twice as many
foetuses that are aborted as there are births. 40% of pregnancies end in
abortion, many women having two or three abortions. The high abortion rate
is due to insufficient awareness of birth control methods.
Living standards in communist-ruled Vietnam have risen dramatically as a result of "doi moi," the process of economic liberalization launched in 1989. Between 1993 and 1998, average annual per capita income increased by 250%. Vietnam has become the world's second largest official rice exporter. Poverty levels (measured in rice per person) dropped to 50% in 1992 and to around 15% last year. People in urban areas saw income climb 370% in the last five years, but in rural areas, where 80% of the population live, income only doubled to $183 (U.S.). Families now have rights over their own land, and chose crops and find their own markets. Corruption and bureaucracy at local level is often blamed for frustrating farmers' attempts to fulfill their potential. 66% of ethnic minority people, mostly mountain people, live in poverty, many suffering food shortages for three to four months a year. Slash and burn agriculture and rapid population growth, have made their situation all the more critical.
There are more than 100,000 married children, ages 17 and younger, in Vietnam, some as young as 13, despite the fact that such marriages are technically illegal. The average age of marriage is rising - since the 1989 census, by about one year for men, to 25.5 years old, and by half a year for women, to 23.7 years old. The contraceptive prevalence rate also jumped in the same period, from 38% in 1989 to 56% last year. February 17, 2000 Agence France Presse
Logging Blamed in Vietnam's Second Wave of Floods. Widespread illegal logging is named as a factor in disastrous flooding that has hit the central coast of Vietnam for the second time in two months. The World Wildlife Fund says the government and provincial authorities are aware of the need to protect the forests and have been active in programs to plant more trees, but illegal logging has been stripping forests from a steep mountain range not far inland of the flooded area. Less than 10% of Vietnam is covered by primary forest. December 9, 1999 Environmental News Service