Earth: Seven Billion People Served (Give or Take)

Welcome to the world, Danica May Camacho. The infant born in Manila on Oct. 30, was chosen by the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF)  as one of a number of symbolic babies to mark the ephocal population change to seven billion people. The United Nations last marked a population milestone in 1999 when the tally reached the six billion mark. The UNPF forescasts Asia, which comprises 60 percent of the world population, to remain the world’s most popular major area in the 21^st century, but looks to Africa’s population to more than triple, increasing from 1 billion in 2011 to 3.6 billion in 2100. The populations of all other major areas combined (the Americas, Europe and Oceania) amount to 1.7 billion in 2011 and are projected to rose to nearly two billion by 2060, the UNPF report states. The average life expectancy has lapt from about 48 years in the early 1950s to about 68 in the first decade of the new century. Infant deaths declined from about 133 in 1,000 births in the 1950s to 46 per 1,000 in the period from 2005 to 2010. The UNPF does note “disparities in rights and opportunities (that) exist between and within countries…Charting a path now to development that promotes equality, rather than exacerbates or reinforces inequalities is more important than ever.” Not to be a party pooper, but the U.S. Cencus bureau reports the world’s population at 6,972,153,146.