Category The World Around us

The most common reason that people move to other countries is to seek work. Modem North America was founded through mass immigration — its population grew from 31 to 92 million between 1860 and 1910. Some people may leave their home country because of war, or for political or religious reasons. These people are known as refugees.

Migration involves people crossing state boundaries and staying in the host state for a minimum length of time. Migration occurs for many reasons. The overwhelming majority of people migrate internationally for reasons related to work, family and study – involving migration processes that largely occur without fundamentally challenging either migrants or the countries they enter. In contrast, other people leave their homes and countries for a range of compelling and sometimes tragic reasons, such as conflict, persecution and disaster. While those who have been displaced, such as refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), comprise a relatively small percentage of all migrants, they are often the most in need of assistance and support. The terms “international migration” and “international migrant” are different but often conflated and used (incorrectly) interchangeably. International migration is the process of moving from one country to another. It involves action. In contrast, a “migrant” is a person described as such for one or more reasons, depending on the context. While in many cases, migrants do undertake some form of migration, this is not always the case. In some situations, people who have never undertaken migration may be referred to as migrants – children of people born overseas, for example, are commonly called second or third-generation migrants. While there are several different potential systems for categorizing international migrants, one system organizes them into nine groups: temporary labour migrants; irregular, illegal, or undocumented migrants; highly skilled and business migrants; refugees; asylum seeker; forced migration; family members; return migrants; and long-term, low-skilled migrants. These migrants can also be divided into two large groups, permanent and temporary. Permanent migrants intend to establish their permanent residence in a new country and possibly obtain that country’s citizenship. Temporary migrants intend only to stay for a limited periods of time; perhaps until the end of a particular program of study or for the duration of their work contract or a certain work season. Both types of migrants have a significant effect on the economies and societies of the chosen destination country and the country of origin.

Similarly, the countries which receive these migrants are often grouped into four categories: traditional settlement countries, European countries which encouraged labour migration after World War II, European countries which receive a significant portion of their immigrant populations from their former colonies, and countries which formerly were points of emigration but have recently emerged as immigrant destinations.

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In the modern world, more and more people live in towns and cities. This is mainly because of employment opportunities — there are generally more jobs to be found in urban areas — but also because modern building methods allow more people to live in a smaller area. Roughly half of the world’s population lives in cities, and this proportion is expected to increase.

Urbanization is something that eventually happens in any developing country, as the population condenses into smaller cities and towns. Agriculture begins to decline, and industrialization fuels the move from rural areas to urban ones.

There are some positives and negatives to urbanization. When done correctly, urbanization means a greater variety of opportunity for residents. If it gets out of hand, though, crime and poverty start to rise uncontrollably.

Urbanization is when people move from rural farmland to cities and towns. Rural areas are more densely packed and offer greater opportunities to their residents in the form of higher paying jobs and a larger variety of job opportunities.

Most developing countries experience the process of urbanization, especially once they start becoming industrialized. Cities and towns become hubs of trade and culture, and more people start moving out of the country to gain access to some of these social and financial benefits.

Urbanization is a natural part of developing society, but it has its downside as well. As populations in cities and towns rise, they expand and eventually invade rural areas. We need to strike a balance with urbanization if we want to flourish as a society. Urbanization is inevitable as a country’s production moves away from agriculture and towards industry. People begin to move to the cities for better access to employment and resources.

Multiple factors contribute to urbanization, and many of them are positive. People seek the best opportunity to provide for themselves and their families, and urban environments are often the answer.

Urban areas have more jobs to offer and can lure people out of rural areas with the promise of a better life and a higher-paying salary. People find more jobs in virtually every industry while looking in cities and towns than they do searching rural locations. There are more people in urban areas, which mean there is more demand. The increased demand opens the door to employment opportunities for a lot of people who can’t find a job in their rural hometown.

In developing countries, employment opportunities often open rapidly through the process of industrialization. Every developing country goes through a period of industrialization, where jobs move from agriculture to production. People begin to move to cities and towns more frequently, adding to the urbanization of that country.

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The average age of a population varies from country to country. In the more developed parts of the world, the population is generally older. High standards of healthcare allow people to live longer, and families tend to have fewer children. In poorer countries, life expectancy is shorter and many babies die at birth. As a result, families have more children, which mean that the population is generally younger.

People worldwide are living longer. Today, for the first time in history, most people can expect to live into their sixties and beyond. By 2050, the world’s population aged 60 years and older is expected to total 2 billion, up from 900 million in 2015. Today, 125 million people are aged 80 years or older. By 2050, there will be almost this many (120 million) living in China alone, and 434 million people in this age group worldwide. By 2050, 80% of all older people will live in low- and middle-income countries.

The pace of population ageing around the world is also increasing dramatically. France had almost 150 years to adapt to a change from 10% to 20% in the proportion of the population that was older than 60 years .However, places such as Brazil, China and India will have slightly more than 20 years to make the same adaptation.

While this shift in distribution of a country’s population towards older ages – known as population ageing – started in high-income countries (for example in Japan 30% of the population are already over 60 years old), it is now low- and middle-income countries that are experiencing the greatest change. By the middle of the century many countries for e.g. Chile, China, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation will have a similar proportion of older people to Japan.

A longer life brings with it opportunities, not only for older people and their families, but also for societies as a whole. Additional years provide the chance to pursue new activities such as further education, a new career or pursuing a long neglected passion. Older people also contribute in many ways to their families and communities. Yet the extent of these opportunities and contributions depends heavily on one factor: health.

There is, however, little evidence to suggest that older people today are experiencing their later years in better health than their parents. While rates of severe disability have declined in high-income countries over the past 30 years, there has been no significant change in mild to moderate disability over the same period.

At the biological level, ageing results from the impact of the accumulation of a wide variety of molecular and cellular damage over time. This leads to a gradual decrease in physical and mental capacity, a growing risk of disease, and ultimately, death. But these changes are neither linear nor consistent, and they are only loosely associated with a person’s age in years. While some 70 year-olds enjoy extremely good health and functioning, other 70 year-olds are frail and require significant help from others.

Beyond biological changes, ageing is also associated with other life transitions such as retirement, relocation to more appropriate housing, and the death of friends and partners. In developing a public-health response to ageing, it is important not just to consider approaches that ameliorate the losses associated with older age, but also those that may reinforce recovery, adaptation and psychosocial growth.

Common conditions in older age include hearing loss, cataracts and refractive errors, back and neck pain and osteoarthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, depression, and dementia. Furthermore, as people age, they are more likely to experience several conditions at the same time.

Older age is also characterized by the emergence of several complex health states that tend to occur only later in life and that do not fall into discrete disease categories. These are commonly called geriatric syndromes. They are often the consequence of multiple underlying factors and include frailty, urinary incontinence, falls, delirium and pressure ulcers.

Geriatric syndromes appear to be better predictors of death than the presence or number of specific diseases. Yet outside of countries that have developed geriatric medicine as a specialty, they are often overlooked in traditionally structured health services and in epidemiological research.

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China has been the world’s most populated country for some time. This vast country is home to over one billion people around one sixth of the world’s total. In an effort to control the growth in numbers of people there, the government has encouraged families to have only one child.

India is set to overtake China as the world’s most populous country in less than a decade, according to a new United Nations report.

China and India currently account for about 37% of the entire global population of roughly 7.7 billion, with China currently home to about 1.4 billion people and India to 1.3 billion. But by 2027, India will have more people than China, according to the UN’s 2019 World Population Prospects report released Monday, and by 2050 the gap is expected to have widened even further. “Between 2019 and 2050, 55 countries or areas are expected to see their populations decrease by at least 1%,” the report said, mostly due to low-levels of fertility and in some cases, high numbers of emigration.

“In the largest of these, China, the population is projected to shrink by 31.4 million, or 2.2 per cent.” That would put China’s population at 1.1 billion, fewer than the 1.5 billion forecast for India.

By 2050, the report predicts the planet’s entire population will be 9.7 billion people, a staggering rise in just one century. Five years after the founding of the UN in 1950, the global population was a mere 2.6 billion people. The UN compiles the report using demographic trends and relevant patterns in human fertility, mortality and migration. The aim is to provide governments with information as they work towards the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

China has been attempting to preemptively tackle a looming population decline for years. With the country’s population rapidly aging and birth rates falling, Beijing even reversed its infamous One Child policy to encourage couples to have more children.

But with an increasingly urban population facing rising costs of living, attempts to push up the birth rate have failed.

Besides India overtaking China, the UN report said Nigeria will be the third most populous country by 2050 with an estimated 733 million people, overtaking the United States, which will fall to fourth place with a population of 434 million. Pakistan will remain the world’s fifth largest country in terms of population.

“Many of the fastest growing populations are in the poorest countries, where population growth brings additional challenges”, said Liu Zhenmin, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), in a statement.

More than half of the predicted global population by 2050 will be clustered in just nine countries, the report said: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Indonesia, Egypt and the United States. Large global trends include decreasing populations, unprecedentedly large, aging populations due to rising life expectancy, and a narrowing discrepancy between rich and poor countries.

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Around a thousand years ago, the world’s population began to increase dramatically, with the sharpest increase occurring during the 20th century. In the year 2000, the world’s population reached six billion, and its growth shows no sign of stopping. Many people fear that an ever-increasing population will lead to serious problems with food supply and overcrowding.

There has been tremendous growth in the size of the world’s population in the last half century. Global population was around 3 billion in 1960. By 1987, in less than three decades, it had surpassed 5 billion and there were around 7.6 billion people in the world in 2018.

This growth varies greatly across regions. Since 1960, the largest relative growth has taken place in Sub-Saharan Africa where the population expanded from 227 million in 1960 to more than 1 billion in 2018—a nearly fivefold increase. The second largest growth over the period can be seen in Middle East and North Africa, where the population increased more than 4 times, from 105 million to 449 million.

It is projected that the world’s population will continue to grow and will reach nearly 10 billion by 2050. While in other regions growth will slow significantly, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the population is projected to double by 2050, an expansion of nearly 10 times relative to 1960, from 227 million to 2.2 billion.

As a result, the share of Sub-Saharan Africa in the world’s population is projected to grow as well. In 1960, the share of the region was just 7 percent, but this has increased to 14 percent in 2018, and is projected to reach 23 percent by 2050. Globally, almost 1 in 4 people will be Sub-Saharan African in 2050, whereas the ratio was 1 in 13 in 1960.

This is largely due to continuously higher fertility rates in Sub-Saharan Africa compared to the rest of the world. Today, on average, women there have 4.8 children per woman, compared with less than 3 children per woman worldwide, and the fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to remain substantially higher than in any other region for the next few decades.

The size of the world’s population is the result of fertility and mortality in the past years – births and deaths. In fact, there is a strong correlation between fertility and mortality. Women tend to have more children where children are more likely to die, and bear fewer children where their child’s risk of dying is lower. In all regions, both mortality and fertility are lowering, but in Sub-Saharan Africa both fertility and mortality are higher than in other parts of the world, and fertility tends to be higher for a given level of child mortality, when compared to other regions, such as South Asia.

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