A New Decade for an Aging World

World Population Going From Boom to Bust

By Father John Flynn, LC


ROME, JAN. 24, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The United Nations has just published a report drawing attention to the problems being created due to a rapidly aging world population. Just after the start of the New Year the Department of Economic and Social Affairs published its "World Population Aging 2009" report.


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-- Aging is affecting nearly all the countries of the world, due to reductions in fertility that have become almost universal.
-- Aging will have a major impact on economic growth, savings, investment, labor markets, and taxation.


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Other recent U.N. reports have examined more in depth demographic problems in individual countries. A study by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), titled "Russia Facing Demographic Challenges," predicted the population will continue to shrink, the Associated Press reported Oct. 4.
According to the UNDP Russia's population has fallen by 6.6 million since 1993, despite the influx of millions of immigrants. The report warned that by 2025 the country could lose a further 11 million people.


The consequences of such a reduction will be labor shortages, an aging population and slower economic growth, according to the UNDP. In 2007 Russia had the world's ninth-largest population. By 2050, the U.N. estimates, Russia will be at no. 15 in the list, with a population smaller than that of Vietnam.


Russia needs to cut its high abortion rate to help reverse the population decline, warned the countries' Health Minister Tatyana Golikova, reported Agence France Presse, Jan. 18.


Golikova said that in 2008 there were 1.714 million births in Russia and 1.234 million abortions.


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While Vietnam may be set to surpass Russia, there too abortion is causing severe problems, according to a report dated August 2009, published by the United Nations Population Fund.


The Study, "Recent Change in the Sex Ratio at Birth in Vietnam: A Review of Evidence," examined the problem of sex-selective abortions. Normally the sex ratio at birth (defined as the number of boys being born per one hundred girls), is between 104-106/100.


This ratio, the report explained is, under normal circumstances, quite stable over time, across geographical regions, continents, countries and races.


Studies on sex rations have revealed an unexpected change, starting in the 1980's in some Asian countries, the U.N. agency commented. "Along with declining fertility, this trend tends to spread throughout countries with large populations in Asia, thus threatening global demographic stability," the report continued.


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As more and more concerns arise over the world's aging population and falling fertility rates the U.S government is in the midst of dramatically increasing its support for contraception and abortion around the world.