POPULATION: Good News

Birth rates are down, but...

The world's fertility rate is dropping, the United Nations Fund for Population Activities reported last week, principally because of delayed marriages and decisions to have smaller families. The U.N. study notes that most governments now recognize the need for comprehensive population policies. Even so, by the end of this decade alone there will be an estimated 738 million more people alive than there were in 1970. By the year 2000 more than 6 billion people will inhabit the planet, twice as many as in 1960. Worse yet, the population of the poorer, developing nations will...

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