PAM 2030 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Sub-Saharan Africa, Doubling Time, Population Projection

• School: Cornell University
• Department: Policy, Analysis and Management
• Course: PAM 2030
• Professor: Lichter

Document Summary

The doubling time is approximately equal to 69 divided by the growth rate. So, if we estimate the world"s rate of growth in the year 2008 to be 1. 2% per year, we can calculate that the doubling time is 58 years. Dividing -69 by negative rate of population growth then tells us how long it would take for the population to be only half as big as it currently is. The high projection assumes that fertility levels never drop to replacement and so the world population grows forever. The low population projection assumes that fertility drops well below replacement, putting the human population on the road to extinction. The rate of population growth peaked in the early 1960s and has been declining ever since. But even with the lower rates of growth, the population is still producing very large increases in the human population. The reason is because death rates were so high.