Information on Population, Demographic Trends
State of World Population 2004: The Cairo Consensus at 10: Population, Reproductive Health, and the Global Effort to End Poverty: Report from UNFPA
Countries are making real progress in carrying out a bold global action plan that links poverty alleviation to women’s rights and universal access to reproductive health. Ten years into the new era opened by the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, the quality and reach of family planning programmes have improved, safe motherhood and HIV prevention efforts are being scaled up, and governments embrace the ICPD Programme of Action as an essential blueprint for realizing development goals.
To order a print copy of The State of World Population 2004 or to view related publications, go to UNFPA's website at http://www.unfpa.org/swp/index.htm.
The Japanese version of the State of World Population 2004 can be download from the UNFPA Tokyo office site at http://www.unfpa.or.jp. For a hard copy, send an email to JOICFP at info@joicfp.or.jp.
2004 World Population Data Sheet: Compiled and published by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB)
To order a print copy of The World Population Data Sheet and a variety of other publications and web tools, go to PRB's website at (http://www.prb.org/).
World Population Prospects: The 2002 Revision, Highlights: Report from the United Nations Population Division
The Executive Summary is particularly interesting. The UN Population Division's website, at http://www.un.org/esa/population/unpop.htm, has the full tables and data online plus other news and publications.
Fertility, Contraception, and Population Policies: Report from the United Nations Population Division, April 2003
This report contains a history of international meetings on population issues since the 1950s and a summary of current government policies around the world. The UN Population Division's website, at http://www.un.org/esa/population/unpop.htm, has other news and publications.
The "Demographic Bonus": Fertility Decline and Economic Growth
Population Trends Pose New Challenges for Asia: Report from the Asian Development Bank
Adolescent Childbearing in Sub-Saharan Africa: Can Increased Schooling Alone Raise Ages at First Birth?
Asia-Pacific Population and Policy: Policy briefs from the East-West Center
The Future of Population in Asia: Report from the East-West Center
Put Together Useful Statistics on DHS countries with the STATcompiler: Macro International
The "Demographic Bonus": Fertility Decline and Economic Growth
One important message for family planning advocates is the llink between fertility decline and economic growth. With fewer children, families—and nations—have more assets per capita to save and invest. Smaller families also allow women to enter the workforce in increasing numbers. The East-West Center and RAND have investigated these linkages and published short policy briefs based on their findings.
Andrew Mason and Sidney B. Westley. 2002. Population Change and Economic Development: Success Stories from Asia. In The Future of Population in Asia. Honolulu, HI: East-West Center.
RAND. 2002. Banking the "Demographic Dividend": How Population Dynamics Can Affect Economic Growth. Population Matters RB 5065 (2002). Santa Monica, CA: RAND. This policy brief is based on: David E. Bloom, David Canning, Jaypee Sevilla. 2003. The Demographic Dividend: A New Perspective on the Economic Consequences of Population Change. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.
Sidney B. Westley. 2001. A “Snapshot” of Populations in Asia. Asia-Pacific Population & Policy No. 59 (October 2001). Honolulu, HI: East-West Center.
Sidney B. Westley and Andrew Mason. 1998. Women are Key Players in the Economies of East and Southeast Asia. Asia-Pacific Population & Policy No. 44 (January 1998). Honolulu, HI: East-West Center.
Andrew Mason. 1997. Population and the Asian Economic Miracle. Asia-Pacific Population & Policy No. 43 (October 1997). Honolulu, HI: East-West Center.
In the coming years, some Asian countries—the People's Republic of China (PRC), Japan, Republic of Korea, and Singapore among them—are expected to experience declining populations.
This trend poses new challenges for Asia's policymakers. How will economies increase productivity so that shrinking workforces can maintain expanding pools of retirees? How will society cope with the changing health and financial needs of an ageing population? What policy changes will be needed to adjust to these changing demographics? For example, should society extend the age of retirement to let a healthier older generation continue working? What will be the impact on pension and social security systems?
At the other end of the scale, countries such as the Philippines and Bangladesh continue to maintain high birth rates—with equally challenging implications for job creation, food security, and environmental stress. The majority of the region's population growth is forecast to come from South Asia, which expects to add 570 million people in India, 200 million in Pakistan, and 130 million in Bangladesh over the next 50 years.
Asia's population trends are analyzed in the theme chapter of Key Indicators 2002, an annual publication from the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB). Highlights from the chapter are summarized in a news release issued on 6 August 2002. To view the full report or order a printed copy, visit the ADB website at http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/Key_Indicators/2002/default.asp.
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Macro International, the company that implements the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), has a feature on its web site that allows users to reproduce comparative statistics for any, or all, countries that have recently carried out a DHS survey. The DHS STATcompiler is an innovative online database tool that allows users to select numerous countries and hundreds of indicators to create customized tables that serve their specific data needs. The STATcompiler accesses nearly all of the population and health indicators that are published in DHS final reports. To begin using the STATcompiler, go to:
http://www.measuredhs.com/
Personal note from Sidney: The STATcompiler definitely works, but it seems to work better on some days than others. With a great deal of persistence, I have come up with tables, for example, that show infant mortality rates for teenage mothers compared with (much lower) infant mortality rates for mothers in their 20s—very useful for reproductive health advocacy. Data are only available for countries that have had fairly recent DHSes. I haven't found that any of these web-based data sources give me exactly the information I need with a simple click of the mouse, but with persistence you can succeed.
