70 million people annually. But between 1950 and 1970, the annual increase grew from 43 million to 73 million.
The "fertility transition" underway today in Latin America, Asia, and Africa is much more rapid than that of 18th- and 19th-century Europe. China's birthrate, for example, fell from 40 per thousand persons to 26 in less than 30 years (1950-77). Since 1970, birthrates have fallen even faster in the rest of the Third World.
The new figures show that the population growth-rate...