\^. Technology for Controlling the Population. Explosion 



The problem of balancing food and population involves the, manipu- 

 lation by governments of two sets of variables: (a) The problem of 

 increasing food supply without achieving unmanageable agricultural 

 surpluses or overtaxing marketing arrangements, and (b) The prob- 

 lem of ensuring that the rate of population increase does not exceed 

 available food supplies or a nation's ability to assure productive em- 

 ployment. The first set of variables has been shown to have a wejl-devej- 

 oped technological component, and a poorly developed political (in- 

 cluding diplomatic) component. At issue in the next two sections of 

 file study is whether the technology and politics of national popula- 

 tion management in the LDCs present a similar relationship. 



Current Growth Rates in Asia, Africa, and Latin America 



Population is growing faster now than at any previous time. It took 

 all of recorded history for world population to reach half a billion by 

 the middle of the I7th century. Population doubled to 1 billion by 

 about 1840 or 1850 — ^that is, in 200 years. It doubled again to 2 billion 

 by 1930, or in 80 years. By 1960 another billion had been added, in 

 only 30 years' time,®^ Present estimates place the world's population at 

 3.6 or 3.7 billion, or even slightly higher. The current annual rate of 

 population growth is generally estimated to average nearly 2 per- 

 cent. On that basis the world's population is increasing by at least 70 

 million people a year. One set of population projections show a world 

 population of 4.93i3 billion by 1985, and anywhere from 6.1 billion 

 to 7.5 billion people by the year 2000.^^ 



Moreover, ^"^opulation is growing fastest in those areas that can af- 

 ford it least, the underdeveloped countries. Thus, while the current 

 rate of population growth in North America is 1.2 percent, in Western 

 Europe .6 percent, and in the USSR 1 percent, in Africa it is 2.7 per- 

 cent, in Asia 2.3 percent, and in Latin America 2.9 percent. 



TABLE 4.— POPULATION GROWTH RATE, SELECTED COUNTRIES* 



Country Percent 



Brazil 2.8 



Colombia 3. 4 



Costa Rica 3. 8 



India 2. 6 



Pakistan 3. 3 



Indonesia ■■ • 2. 9 



Laos 2. 5 



Thailand 3. 3 



Algeria 3. 2 



Nigeria 2. 6 



Zambia 3. 



'Source: Population Reference Bureau, Inc., "1971 World Population Data Sheet." (Washington, D.C., 

 August 1971.) Data from the developing countries are not always accurate, and in some instances estimates 

 made by the U.N. Secretariat are Incorporated in the figure cited. 



Note. — Central America has the highest rate of population growth of any region in the world. 



87 "The Population Explosion." Department of State News Letter. (December, 1»66K 

 paee 22. 



** The totals shown for the year 2000 are based upon U.N. estimates, the lower fiirure 

 renresentln? the so-called U.N. Medium Variant, the higher figure representing the U.N. 

 Constant Fertility Variant. 



(H22) 



