The annual number of deaths among people under age 50 fell from 21 million in 1955 to about 10 million in 1997. Deaths under 50 are expected to decline further, to 5 million, by 2025. This is an extraordinary improvement in human health since world population in 1955 was 2.8 billion and is now over 6 billion. For those worried about population growth, the average number of children a woman has over the course of her lifetime has dropped from just under 6 in 1960 to 2.9 today. If current fertility trends continue, U.N. population figures suggest that world population is likely to top out at a bit over 8 billion and begin to fall by the middle of this century.
Widespread famines are thing of the past.
Global food prices have dropped by 50 percent since 1960 largely because food production increased at faster pace than population growth. Between 1820 and 1992, the world's economies grew 40-fold. Without minimizing the hardships that many Americans face, the good news is that poverty in this country isn't what it used to be. Seventy-five percent own VCRs and own at least one car. Forty-one percent own their own homes, and 50 percent own stereos and almost all have refrigerators and cooking stoves.