562 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1962 



Table 4. — Estimated 'population and vital rates Jor the world by region, 1950-75 



Continent and region 



(1) 



Medium 

 projection 



to 1975 

 (millions) 



(6) 



World total 



Africa 



Northern Africa 



Tropical and Southern Africa 



America 



North America 



Middle America 



South America 



Asia 



Southwest Asia 



South-central Asia 



Southeast Asia 



East Asia 



Europe 



Northern and Western Europe 



Central Europe 



Southern Europe 



Oceania 



Union of Soviet Socialist Repubhcs. 



3,830 

 303 

 76 

 226 

 543 

 240 

 99 

 204 



2,210 

 116 

 737 

 280 



1,075 

 476 

 154 

 156 

 166 

 21 

 275 



Source: References 15 A and B at end of article. 



The Chinese census of 1953 is very difficult to appraise and might 

 introduce an error of as much as 90 million in the present world 

 population ! 



WHAT IS PAST IS PROLOGUE 



Since man first appeared on earth, human arithmetic has moved 

 from a relatively simple exercise in addition to a complicated one of 

 geometric progression. It took all of the vast reaches of time to 

 build today's population of slightly over 3 billion. But it will take 

 only 40 more years for population to reach 6 billion, if the present 

 growth rates remain unchanged. 



Life on this earth was a precarious gamble for Homo sapiens for 

 hundreds of thousands of years. Driven by his natural reluctance to 

 endure an early death, man ultimately discovered and then perfected 

 the power to defer death. That he has succeeded is a notable tribute 

 to his genius and to his humanitarian and philanthropic instincts. 



It is noteworthy that the desire to control fertility has never had 

 the emotional imperatives which brought the power over death. Only 

 modest efforts have been made thus far to discover effective methods 

 of fertility control which would be acceptable to the people of all 

 cultures and religions. Less than modest efforts have been made 



