World’s Population Tops 5 Billion as Births Rise

The rate at which people are being born is speeding up again, just as the planet’s population edges past the 5-billion milestone, a population study group reported Monday.

The private Population Reference Bureau cited an easing of strict birth limits in China as a prime reason for the turnaround in population growth.

The Bureau’s new World Population Data Sheet for 1987 estimates that the July 1 population of the world will be 5.026 billion.

The United Nations has projected that the world will pass the 5-billion milestone early in July, while another private study group, the Population Institute, calculated that the event occurred last year.

In its new report, the Population Reference Bureau estimated the worldwide birthrate at 28 per 1,000 people, up from 27 last year.

“If Beijing continues to ease up on its population policy, it will shatter current assumptions about a continuing slowdown in the global population’s growth rate,” said bureau specialist Carl Haub. “China’s sheer size dominates the entire demographic picture.”

China’s policy of one child per family had been very effective in reducing growth in recent years, but that has not been stressed as heavily this year, said Mary Kent of the bureau.

As a result, China’s birth rate jumped from 18 per 1,000 people in 1986 to 21 this year and “they may have trouble getting it back down,” Kent said in a telephone interview.

“They didn’t mean to ease up that much,” she said, adding that there have been indications that Chinese officials plan to renew their stress on small families.

Between 1986 and 1987, the Chinese population grew from 1.263 billion to 1.275 billion. That means more than one human being in four was a resident of China.

Regionally, Africa has the world’s highest birthrate, averaging 44 births per 1,000 people. Asia--not counting China--has the second highest rate at 33. The continent’s population outside China totals 1.868 billion.

Next came Latin America with a birthrate of 30.

The birthrate for the Soviet Union is 19 per 1,000 in a population of 284 million.

North America has a current birthrate of 15. The population of the United States and Canada totals 270 million.

Europe has the lowest birthrate at 13 per 1,000 people.