Population of Selected Countries

(click to enlarge)


 

China	1,321,851,888
India	1,129,866,154
United States	301,139,947
Indonesia	234,693,997
Brazil	190,010,647
Russia	141,377,752
Nigeria	135,031,164
Japan	127,433,494
Mexico	108,700,891
Germany	82,400,996
Iran	65,397,521
France	63,713,926
Spain	40,448,191
Canada	33,390,141
Iraq	27,499,638
Korea, North	23,301,725
Australia	20,434,176
Syria	19,314,747
Netherlands	16,570,613
Chile	16,284,741
Cuba	11,394,043
Greece	10,706,290
Belgium	10,392,226
Hungary	9,956,108
Sweden	9,031,088
Switzerland	7,554,661
Bulgaria	7,322,858
Hong Kong	6,980,412
Israel	6,426,679
Denmark	5,468,120
Norway	4,627,926
Ireland	4,109,086

About one in three persons in the world is either Chinese or Indian. The current world population of 6.6B is expected to grow to 9B by 2050. Almost all of this increase will be in Africa and Asia. Environmentalists say population growth is the largest threat to the environment. My opinion is that some of these countries will not have the needed political stability nor will their environment sustain such growth. China has a "one couple, one child" law and tries to enforce it. As far as I know, it is the only country with this law.

On the other hand, many advanced countries are shrinking because their people are choosing not to have children. They have such low birth rates they face huge social problems in the future such as not enough workers to support the elderly. Oddly enough Italy, the home of the Catholic church, has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe. America currently has a slightly positive popultion growth.

Some other observations: Ireland (4M) about the same size as the Pheonix, Arizona urban area. The Philadelphia urban area(5.9M) is larger than Denmark. The London metro area (8.6M) is larger than Israel. California (36M) has more people than Canada. If you are a small country like Denmark you have to be a little nervous about the future if some of the 9B decide maybe your tiny population does not merit all the your territorial rights.