Still Explosive IPS news reports appear daily in English, German, Finnish, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish. Rather, the number of human beings likely will double during the latter part of the next century. Accordingly, the report hinted at fears that the United States could be inundated with immigrants. ''In 1997, world population growth turned a little slower. The difference, however, is comparable to a tidal wave surging toward one of our coastal cities. Whether the tidal wave is 80 feet or 100 feet high, the impact will be similar,'' it decvlared.
Western populations continue to age and dwindle, the report notes.
As a consequence, projections of the number of people to be added to the world's total have been downgraded, from around 90 million people per year, to about 81 million per year, said Thirunarayanapuram. This has led some in the U.S. press to declare that the population explosion had been defused - and perhaps even converted into an impending implosion. The pundits were wrong, the Institute researcher argued, because, ''in places like sub-Saharan Africa, they're going to be reproducing geometrically. High-fertility countries highlighted in the report include Nigeria and Pakistan. Three main factors drive the continuing explosion, the report says.