DSW: The world’s population hits 6,900 million

Germany, December 28, 2010

The German Foundation for World Population (DSW) informs that the world population will hit this year 6,900 million people, about 80 million more than in 2009.

The same report released today in Hannover by German experts predicted that the number will reach 7,000 million by mid-2011.

DSW said that 2.6 children are born per second in the world. Most of them take place in emerging countries, which accounts the 82% of the total world population.

Africa is currently the continent with the highest population growth. It is estimated that over the next forty years their population of 1000 million people will double to 2000 million.

Currently, about half of the inhabitants of this continent don’t cover basic needs, which means that population growth will go hand in hand with an unstoppable increase in poverty.

For that reason, the DSW calls to promote family planning and sex education in African countries.