The world population reached eight billion people on Tuesday, according to the U.N. However, it recommended nations to extend access to free healthcare in order to reduce mortality rates and lengthen life expectancies.
Although this is a triumph for humanity, U.N Secretary-General António Guterres observed that it also raises questions about the relationship between population increase, poverty, and the Sustainable Development Goals.
“Unless we bridge the yawning chasm between the global haves and have-nots, we’re setting ourselves up for an 8-billion-strong world filled with tensions and mistrust, crisis and conflict.”
In spite of a declining global population growth rate, he predicted that by the 2080s, there will be roughly 10.4 billion people on the planet. In addition, population growth has been concentrated more and more in the world’s poorest nations, the majority of which are in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Against this backdrop, the global community must ensure that all countries, regardless of whether their populations are growing or shrinking, are equipped to provide a good quality of life for their populations and can lift up and empower their most marginalised people.”
He claims that, despite the fact that rapid growth makes it more challenging to eradicate poverty, fight hunger and malnutrition, and expand the reach of health and education systems, achieving the SDGs, particularly those pertaining to health, education, and gender equality, would help to slow down global population growth.
The National Population Commission’s chairman, Nasir Isa Kwarra, said in a statement on Tuesday that Nigeria’s anticipated 216 million population would be managed for sustainable growth.
He claimed that despite its enormous size, Nigeria’s population was still the nation’s greatest resource for growth and a key to achieving the demographic dividend.
Africa is the world’s second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth’s total surface area and 20% of its land area. With 1.4 billion people as of 2021, it accounts for about 18% of the world’s human population.