Issues in Population Growth

Throughout the world the rate of population increase is slowing down, suggesting that in a number of countries the population is stabilizing (and in some cases declining). The Philippines may be the exception to the rule.

At current rates of growth the population of this country will exceed 210 million within the lifetime of most people living in the Philippines today.

According to new calculations released by the United Nations, the world population is expected to reach between 7.4 and 10.6 billion by the year 2050 with the best estimate put at around 8.9 billion.

Asia will continue to be the home of around 60 percent of the worlds population although India will overtake China as the most populous country.

The Philippines is the one country in Asia in which the population continues to buck the global and Asian trend.

Unless current trends of rapid population increase are arrested they suggest an actual population of around 210 million Filipinos by the year 2050. This is more than 2.6 times the present number. With 50 percent of the current population living in poverty, this also suggests that the problems facing this country will compound greatly in the years ahead with demands for education, food, water and sanitation that cannot be met without major and long-term changes in policy direction.

Korea, Taiwan and Singapore will also peak during this period while the populations of Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines will continue to grow with the Philippines continuing to grow at the fastest rate (and in sheer numbers, overtaking Vietnam). Already the Philippines is the world's 13th most populous nation. By the year 2050 it will have inched up a notch to 12th place (easing out Germany which will disappear from the top 20). Indeed the population of the Philippines is expected to increase at a rate faster than that even of India.

Already the Philippines is starting late in the day. Other Asian countries, including most of the Philippines' Asian neighbors have already adopted prudent population and industry policies to control their populations and to implement growth strategies that will make a meaningful difference to the lives of their people. Thailand for one is now reaping the benefit of policies started back in the sixties. The Philippines stands out as the exception to the rule in this regard and it is a policy stance that the country's present political and economic elite can only ignore at the risk of jeopardizing the future of the country.

WHAT COULD BE DONE BY A FILIPINO TO COMBAT THIS DILEMMA?