Information from: The Population Reference Bureau:
“World Population: More Than Just”

THERE HAVE NEVER BEEN SO MANY YOUNG PEOPLE

Less developed countries, in particular, have
significantly younger populations than more
developed countries. Decades of high birth
rates in the less developed countries have meant
ever-increasing numbers of young people.
Improvements in infant mortality also contributed to the
expanding youth population. Children under age 15 made up
one-third of the population in the less developed countries in
1998, and even greater proportions in some regions. In contrast,
only one-fifth of the population in more developed countries is
under 15. The number of people under age 25 has more than
doubled since the 1950s: from 1.3 billion to 2.9 billion in 2000.
According to UN medium projections, their numbers are
expected to peak around the year 2030 at over 3 billion, and to
decline slowly thereafter.
The base of the population pyramid for less developed
countries shows some narrowing—the result of declining birth
rates in many countries beginning in the 1980s. But even with
declining rates, the young age structure creates considerable
momentum for future growth because the population reaching
childbearing ages continues to expand. Women may have fewer
children than women did in the past, but today there are more
women having these children. The decisions that today’s youth
make about when to have children and how many to have will determine future population growth—how much population will grow and how fast.
Revision (medium scenario) .
Children and youth
Population under age 25, worldwide, 1950–2050,
iOne Billion Young People

In 1990, over one-half of the world’s population was under age 25. Of these, about1 billion were between the ages of 15 and 24, the ages at which most young peoplebegin childbearing. Each year, around 6 percent of girls worldwide ages 15 to 19 give birth. The proportion
of teen childbearing varies by region. Africa has the largest proportion of
teenagers giving birth (12 percent), while Europe has the smallest (2 percent). But Canada and the United States have greater percentages of teenage childbearing than Europe (5 percent).
Teen childbearing, like childbearing for all women, is linked to education, age at first marriage, and economic status. More-educated teens are less likely to have a child than less-educated teens. For example, among women ages 20 to 24 in Kenya, 70 percent of women with fewer than seven years of schooling gave birth before they turned 20, compared with 45 percent of women with seven or more years of schooling.
For most women around the world, childbearing takes place in the context of marriage. In countries where significant proportions of women are married before age 18, the likelihood of early childbearing is increased. In Bangladesh, for example, 73 percent of women are married before age 18 and about 15 per-cent of women ages 15 to 19 give birth each year. Conversely, a much smaller proportion of women are married before age 18 in the United States (11 percent), and a smaller proportion of women ages15 to 19 give birth each year (5 percent).ge of women
15–19 giving
CASE IN POINT.
Sub-Saharan Africa

While sub-Saharan Africa has begun a transition to lower mortal-
ity, childbearing rates have remained stubbornly high. The total
fertility rate (the average number of children a woman would have,
given current birth rates) was about 6.6 in the 1950s. In the 1990s,
the region still has the highest birth rates in the world, with a rate
of about 6.0 children per woman. These high birth rates have kept
the countries of sub-Saharan Africa very young: 45 percent of the
population was under age 15 in 1997.
Childbearing is common among teenagers in Africa. About 12 per-
cent of teenagers (ages 15 to 19) are giving birth each year. The
reproductive health needs of adolescents have been a matter of
increased concern. Lowering the birth rates of young adults is the
key to sub-Saharan Africa’s transition to lower birth rates. In addi-
tion, there is concern that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is striking hard
at young adult populations.
Education is another key determinant of lower childbearing rates.
Throughout the world, the education of women has been associ-
ated with a desire for fewer children, greater use of contraceptives,
and lower fertility. Sub-Saharan African countries have made vast
strides in increasing educational opportunities for their young
people since these countries achieved independence in the 1960s.
Some analysts believe that enrollment ratios at the secondary
school level must reach 20 percent for girls before a transition to
lower childbearing rates can occur. The average for sub-Saharan
Africa was 21 percent in the mid-1990s, just above the threshold.

Women
Over the last several decades, women around the world have made significant gains in areas such as health, work, and education.
Since the 1950s, women’s life expectancy
has increased from 49 years to 68 years. Since
the 1960s, women’s participation in the labor force has risen from 33 percent to 54 percent. Since the 1970s, literacy rates for women have risen from 54 percent to 64 percent. And since the 1980s, the gap between
girls and boys enrolled in secondary school has narrowed, from
80 girls to 90 girls enrolled per 100 boys.
This progress is due, in part, to a growing awareness that
continuing social and economic development depends on
improving women’s lives and on allowing women to participate
fully in society. Expanding access to reproductive health servic-es,
narrowing the literacy gap between men and women, and
providing income opportunities for women will not only
enrich their lives but also reduce the inequities between men
and women that perpetuate women’s lower status in many societies. Better health and higher educational levels will position women to contribute more actively in economic and political arenas.
S LIVES AR
Education
Education is one of the most important sources of opportunity in any society. Although the education gap between men and women is narrowing in many countries,worldwide more men than women are literate (80 percent compared with 64 percent). While nearly all boys and girls are enrolled in both primary and secondary school in more developed countries, women in less developed countries are more
likely to have completed fewer years of education than men and to be illiterate. Lower enrollment of women is largely due to early marriage and childbearing, household duties, parents’ perceptions that secondary school is more beneficial for sons, worries about girls’ safety outside the village environment, and limited job opportunities for women in sectors that require higher education.

The Reproductive Revolution

Reproduction is a central factor in all women’s lives. The interaction between fertility (the number of children women have) and women’s status is dynamic. A change in fertility levels may alter traditional roles for men and women within a society. Changes in women’s status might lead women to change the timing and number of children they have.
Fertility rates throughout the world have declined substantially in the last several decades. Women worldwide are having fewer children in their lifetimes, from an average of five children born per woman in the 1950s to less than three in 1995. When making predictions about future growth, the UN assumes that levels of child-bearing will continue to decline in the next century. The “reproductive revolution” has been one of the most remarkable events of the second half of the 20th century. The development of family planning methods made it safer and easier for women to avoid unintended pregnancies. Increased access to these methods and socioeconomic changes that motivated smaller family sizes drove
the fertility declines of the last few decades. Use of family planning rose from less than10 percent of married women of child-bearing
age in the 1960s to about 50 percent of these women in the 1990s.
Family planning saves the lives of both mothers and children. Maternal deaths are reduced because family planning helps young women delay motherhood
and prevent unwanted pregnancies and abortions. Access to and services for maternity care also reduce the risk of maternal deaths. Maternal mortality varies enormously throughout the world,
from fewer than 8 maternal deaths per100,000 live births in many European countries to more than 1,400 deaths per100,000 live births in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa.