Population

Population, number of or term for all the inhabitants of a designated territory. For the world as a whole, population doubled between 1930 and 1975, from 2 to 4 billion, and increased to 4.7 billion by mid-1983, with a possible 6 billion forecast for the year 2000. The sharpest increases have been in developing nations, which are least able to provide food, education, and jobs for all. Averting world famine depends on the few countries able to export food. Many nations now have population-control programs, but the control of infectious diseases and increases in the food supply because of modern growing techniques have combined to encourage population growth. In some societies, however, fertility rates have declined somewhat, and an increase in abortions, approaching the number of live births in a few countries, has helped defuse the population bomb, though not without great controversy. In the United States, a “baby boom” occurred after World War II, but after 1957 the birth rate declined and by the 1980s gave indications of approaching zero population growth.