How fast humanity grows, minute by minute

The weekly quiz is provided by the Globalist, a daily online feature service that covers issues and trends in globalization. The nonpartisan organization provides commercial services and nonprofit educational features.

Question

While some countries experience an increasingly steep population decline, the overall global population continues to climb. This year, the world’s total population stands at about 7.5 billion. We wonder: How much does the world’s population grow per minute?

A4.8 is not correct:

The world’s population growth, measured on a per-minute basis, is much faster than that. The number 4.8 actually captures the children that mothers in Sub-Saharan Africa each bear on average, according to the UN Population Division. This is almost double the global fertility rate of 2.5children per woman. The fertility rate in subSaharan Africa is also much higher than the average rate in all less developed regions across the world, 2.6 children per woman. In the world’s developed regions, the average stands at 1.7. The average fertility rate in all of Asia is 2.2 children. India, the world’s secondmost populous nation, is slightly above that regional average, at 2.3 children. Meanwhile, China’s rate stands at 1.6. The latter is actually below the average for developed countries. Like China, Europe also has an average fertility rate of 1.6 children per woman and so does Canada. At 1.9 children per woman, the fertility rate in the United States is nearly 20% higher on average. The fertility rate in Latin America and the Caribbean, at 2 children per woman, is very close to the U.S. rate. However, Brazil, the most populous country in the region, has a fertility rate of 1.7.

B49.5 is not correct:

In July 2017, the share of the world population that is female stands at about 49.5%. The UN estimates that there are 3.74 billion women in total on earth today, compared to 3.81 billon men (50.5%). In developed regions, slightly more than half the population (51.3%) is female, while in less developed regions slightly less than half is female (49.2%). These small distinctions are likely related to women in developed countries having longer life expectancies and better childbirth survival rates. Africa is home to 629 million women and girls, making up 50.1% of the population. Asia is home to 2.2 billion women and girls, but they are just 48.8%, with even slightly lower shares in China (48.5%) and India (48.2%). This is largely due to a preference for male children in both countries, which leads to abortions on a gender-selection basis or the abandonment of female children. This deplorable practice is known as femicide or female gendercide.

C82.6 is not correct:

The world’s population grew faster than by 82.6 people per minute during the 12 months from July 2016 through the end of June 2017. However, in total it grew by 82.6 million over that time frame. In other words, the world population currently increases by adding approximately the equivalent of the total population of Germany, the world’s 17th most populous country, each year. The population of the world’s developed regions increased by only about 3.1 million or 3.8% of the total increase — on balance over the past year. By contrast, the population in developing regions rose by about 79.5 million. These numbers do not represent births, but the number of births (or immigrant arrivals) exceeding deaths in each country or region thus the net population increase. The population of Asia grew by 42 million over the year, or about the size of Ukraine’s population. Meanwhile, Africa’s population grew by 30.4 million which is greater than the overall populations of Australia and New Zealand put together. Europe’s population grew by only 359,000 from July 2016 through June 2017, a change which is smaller than the population of the Bahamas. Latin America and the Caribbean grew by 6.5 million over the period, while Northern America grew by 2.7million, mostly in the United States.

D157.2 is correct: The world’s population grew by about 157 people every minute on balance between July 1, 2016and July 1, 2017, according to UN Population Division projections on global population growth. About 151 of those people added on a net basis worldwide (i.e., births minus deaths) occurred in less developed regions of the world, which have a total population of 6.3 billion. That leaves only about 6 people being added per minute to the 1.3 billion people living in the world’s developed regions. Of those 157.2additional lives added per minute globally, approximately 58 occurred in Africa, with 50 of those in sub-Saharan countries. But half came from Asia. About 30 were added in India alone, while the number for China is 11 people per minute. In developed countries around the world, most of the population increase (4.5 of 6) occurred in the United States. Virtually every country in Europe lost population each minute, or remained approximately unchanged on balance.