What’s in the news?

• As the global population reached eight billion, the United Nations said that India’s population growth appeared to be stabilising, which shows that the national policies and health systems, including access to family planning services, are working.
• The world population touched eight billion and India was the largest contributor to the milestone, having added 177 million people of the last billion people born in the world, the UN said.
• For China, which added 73 million people, the projection is that its contribution to the next billion in the global population will be in the negative.
• However, India’s population growth appears to be stabilising. The Total Fertility Rate — more or less the average number of children born per woman — has declined from 2.2 to 2.0 at the national level.
• A total of 31 States and Union Territories (constituting 69.7% of the country’s population) have achieved fertility rates below the replacement level of 2.1.
• The main reasons for the decline in fertility include increase in adoption of modern family planning methods (from 47.8% in 2015-16 to 56.5% in 2019-21) and a reduction in unmet need for family planning by four percentage points over the same period.

reference:

https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/humanity-hits-the-eight-billion-mark/article66139348.ece