Diversity in trends (cont.)
This variation in growth rates has a number of consequences. Firstly, the distribution of population between major regions, and between more and less developed countries, will change considerably over the next 50 years.
The graph below shows population projections for India, China, Africa, other Less Developed countries (LDCs) and More Developed countries (MDCs).
Changing population distribution of major world regions.
Source: UN Population Division. World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision, medium variant (2009).
You should now be able to see that global population growth is largely a phenomenon limited to Less Developed countries. The proportion of the world’s population living in LDCs will continue to increase, as MDCs have little or even negative growth.