World Energy Outlook and Impact of Oil Prices on Financial Crisis

The Relationship Between World Population And Energy Demand

The population of mankind increases rapidly. As of October 31, 2011, it is estimated by the UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, that the world population exceeded 7th milestones by billion, whereas it was only 2.52 billion in 1950. (United Nations Population Division, 1999) The rapid growth of the world population is a recent phenomenon. About 2,000 years ago, the population of the world was about 300 million. It took more than 1,600 years for the world population to double to 600 million. The rapid growth of the world population started in 1950, with reductions in mortality in the less developed regions, resulting in an estimated population of 6.1 billion in the year 2000, nearly two-and-a-half times the population in 1950. (United Nations Population Fund, 2011)

With the declines in fertility in most of the world, the global growth rate of population has been decreasing since its peak of 2.0 per cent in 1965 - 1970. On the other hand, due to the massive number reached so far, it still keeps its growth rate. Table 1 clearly shows that the years elapsed to add another 1 billion people dropped to only 12. According to the projections, the world population will reach to 9 billion in year 2050 which means roughly 2 billion more people than today.