BBC Learning English
Words in the News
24th October 2011
Countdown to seven billionth baby
Today begins the one-week countdown to 31st October when the world population will reach seven billion. That's a rise of two billion in less than a quarter century. This report is from Barbara Plett.
Seven days from now the world's seven billionth baby will be born. That's according to the UN's projections, and it's using the milestone to take stock of trends in population growth.
The big question is how long the planet can continue to satisfy the voracious appetite of its growing number of human inhabitants.
In fact, over the past six decades, the global fertility rate has been cut in half.
Statistically from five children per woman to 2.5. But 78 million babies are still being born every year, almost all of them in developing countries.
The UN says women in these countries are having so many babies because of poverty, lack of education, income and access to birth control.
Not only that, they and their children face a high risk of poor health and early death. So the UN is highlighting the need to boost education and employment opportunities for poor women: in other words, address the poverty and the demography will look after itself, as it did in Europe.
Barbara Plett, BBC News, New York
Words in the News
© British Broadcasting Corporation 2011
Page 1 of 2
bbclearningenglish.com
Vocabulary and definitions
projections
calculations and estimates
the milestone
the significant number
to take stock of
to think carefully about something with a view to developing a policy about it
trends
changes over time
the voracious appetite of
the using up of resources at a very fast rate
fertility rate
average number of children born to each woman
access to
availability of
to boost
to increase and improve
address
find an answer to the problem of
the demography
the high birth rates in undeveloped countries
More on this story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15368276
Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2011/10/111024_witn_seven_billion.shtml
Words in the News
© British Broadcasting Corporation 2011
Page 2 of 2
bbclearningenglish.com
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