People, People, People

Despite some progress, global population is still growing at an alarming rate

Diplomats and demographers, economists and family planners, the elite brigades of global social science, will converge on Mexico City next week to tackle a formidable issue: the relentless growth of world population. They will hear some good news. In the ten years since the last United Nations-sponsored International Conference on Population, which was held in Bucharest, the annual growth rate of the world's population has declined from 2% to 1.7%.

But that positive statistic stands out amid an otherwise sobering array. During the past decade, the number...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!