The difference in the rate of increase is even more remarkable than the population distribution. Previously we mentioned the difference between developed and developing nations, but now we'd like to concentrate on the significant differences within the developing nations. From 1950 until now, the increase rate has been high with almost no signs of a decrease in Africa, and Central, Southern and Western Asia, but we can see a slight decline in the rate in Latin America and South-East Asia. The population scale is large in East Asia, but the rate of increase is certainly falling recently.
Generally, although there differences from area to area as indicated above, significant changes occurred around 1975. The 'World Population Action Plan' was first adopted at the 'United Nations World Population Conference' held in Bucharest, the capital of Rumania, in 1974. This was completed by agreement of each attendant nation to promote economic social development and population policies to solve the world population problems. Although there was no worldwide agreement on recognition and policy regarding world population problems, circumstances were changed by this conference. We could clearly see the results through the situation reports of each participant nation at the 'International Population Conference' held in Mexico City ten years later. That was the background to the decline of the population increase rate in many areas of the world, as shown in Table 2, with 1975 being a water-shed year.
2. Future World Population
How the world's population changes in the future is the main issue. The United Nations has announced its estimation for the future world population fourteen times; first in 1951 and most recently in 1994.
The UN estimation in 1994 uses 1990 as its starting point, and covers up to the year 2050. [Table 3] According to this estimate, the world population would reach 5.7 billion by 1995, 6.2 billion in 2000, 8.3 billion in 2025, and 9.8
