DUSHANBE, October 31, 2011, Asia-Plus — The United Nations is expected to mark the birth of the 7 billionth resident of our planet today.
Actually, no one is sure if the 7 billionth person will really be born today. Experts say that baby might be born later this year or next year – or might have been born already.
“We always made it clear that October 31 is a symbolic date,” said Gerhard Heilig, the U.N.’s chief of population estimates and projections, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “It is our best guess.”
It was just 12 years ago that the world’s 6 billionth resident was born.
At the time, that person was identified as Adnan Nevic, who was born in the European nation of Bosnia.
This time, no one is trying to say for sure who number 7 billion will be – or where he or she will be born.
But based on birth rates and population growth, they say the baby might be born in India’s Uttar Pradesh state, according to Reuters news service.
Meanwhile, Daily Mirror reports that some experts believe this rapid growth could be a pretty spooky prospect. Twice as many people now share the world’s limited resources as in the 60s. And the number or people on earth has already increased by one billion since 1999. The UN Population Fund reckons it is set to reach more than nine billion by 2050.
