BBC Learning English
Words in the News
24
th
October 2011
Countdown to seven billionth baby
Words in the News
© British Broadcasting Corporation 2011
Page 1 of 2
bbclearningenglish.com
Today begins the one-week countdown to 31st October when the world population will
reach seven billion. That's a rise of two billion in less than a quarter century. This report
is from Barbara Plett.
Seven days from now the world's seven billionth baby will be born. That's according to
the UN's projections, and it's using the milestone to take stock of trends in
population growth.
The big question is how long the planet can continue to satisfy the voracious appetite
of its growing number of human inhabitants.
In fact, over the past six decades, the global fertility rate has been cut in half.
Statistically from five children per woman to 2.5. But 78 million babies are still being
born every year, almost all of them in developing countries.
The UN says women in these countries are having so many babies because of poverty,
lack of education, income and access to birth control.
Not only that, they and their children face a high risk of poor health and early death. So
the UN is highlighting the need to boost education and employment opportunities for
poor women: in other words, address the poverty and the demography will look after
itself, as it did in Europe.
Barbara Plett, BBC News, New York
