UN report tracks impact of global population and poverty

Stat house
November 2001

UN report tracks impact of global population and poverty
On November 7, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will release The State of World Population 2001 report, Footprints and Milestones: Population and Environmental Change. Human activity is altering the planet on an unprecedented scale, the report finds. More people are using more resources with more intensity—and leaving a bigger “footprint” on the earth—than ever before.

Global poverty cannot be alleviated without reversing the environmental damage caused by both rising affluence and consumption and by growing populations, the report stresses. It calls for increased attention and resources to balancing human and environmental needs.

World population, now 6.1 billion, has doubled since 1960 and is projected to grow by half, to 9.3 billion, by 2050. Some 2 billion people already lack food security, and water supplies and agricultural lands are under increasing pressure. Water use has risen six-fold over the past 70 years; by 2050, 4.2 billion people will be living in countries that cannot meet people’s daily basic needs. Unclean water and poor sanitation kill over 12 million people each year; air pollution kills nearly 3 million.

All of the projected growth in world population will take place in today’s developing countries. The 49 least-developed countries will nearly triple in size in 50 years, from 668 million to 1.86 billion people. To accommodate the nearly 8 billion people expected on earth by 2025 and improve their diets, the world will have to double food production and improve distribution.

The world’s richest countries, with 20 per cent of global population, account for 86 per cent of private consumption; the poorest 20 per cent account for just 1.3 per cent. A child born today in an industrialized country will add more to consumption and pollution over his or her lifetime than 30 to 50 children born in developing countries.

Nearly 60 per cent of people in developing countries lack basic sanitation, a third do not have access to clean water, one quarter lack adequate housing, 20 per cent do not have access to modern health services, and 20 per cent of children do not attend school through grade five.
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