In 2009, the world’s population was estimated to be 6.8 billion people. Projections
by the United Nations placed the figure at more than 9.2 billion by the year
2050 (another widely cited projection is higher, at 9.5 billion). The overwhelming
majority of that population will inhabit the developing world. What will be
the economic and social implications for development if such projections are realized?
Is this scenario inevitable, or will it depend on the success or failure of
development efforts? Finally, even more significant, is rapid population growth
per se as serious a problem as many people believe, or is it a manifestation of
more fundamental problems of underdevelopment and the unequal utilization
of global resources between rich and poor nations, as others argue?