Population

All the people living on earth (humanity) or within a specific territory, continent, country, region, or city. Unlike the general term naselenie (population), the Russian term narodonaselenie, which is the subject of this article, is ordinarily used in socioeconomic contexts. The special science of demography studies population.
Changes in population are caused by biological, geographic, and socioeconomic factors, of which the last group exerts the most decisive influence on population development. Population problems are associated with the biological nature of human beings, human interaction with the environment, and the development of social formations, to the extent that the able-bodied population is the main productive force in a society.
Scientific, systematic study of population began in the 17th century. Regular population records were organized in Europe and America in the 19th century. In the rest of the world, systematic records were not kept until the first quarter of the 20th century. (In some Asian and African countries the first population censuses were taken after World War II. No census has ever been taken in Afghanistan, Bhutan, and a number of countries on the Arabian Peninsula, as well as in certain African countries.)
The development of capitalism and the intensification of the class struggle gave rise to distorted, oversimplified demographic theories, of which Malthusianism was the most widely known. The antiscientific, petit bourgeois essence of Malthusianism was exposed by Marxist science. The contemporary study of population problems is conducted in an atmosphere of sharp ideological conflict between bourgeois and Marxist scholars. The Marxist-Leninist theory of population investigates the influence of productive forces and production relations on living conditions, working conditions, and reproduction, as well as the effect of social, economic, political, cultural, legal, religious, and domestic factors on demographic indexes.
The chief population indexes are reproduction figures (birthrate, marriage rate, mortality, and natural increase); pattern of settlement, urbanization, and migration (population geography); composition by age and sex, and marital status; level of education; and racial, linguistic, ethnic, and religious composition. Demographic indexes that reflect the socioeconomic structure of the population are employment, the size of the labor force, and the occupational and class composition of the population.
The total world population depends on the natural increase (or decrease) in population. The population of particular countries and regions also depends on migration. The indexes of natural increase (or decrease) and of population differ, depending on the country and, to a significant degree, on the socioeconomic system. The population of the globe and its overall growth rate are steadily increasing. The rate of growth decreases temporarily, or, in some cases, the absolute population drops, only in certain places or during certain periods characterized by wars, epidemics, or natural disasters. About 15 million people died from the plague in the 14th century, and 20 million died in the flu epidemic after World War I. In the 19th century, 25 million people in India and even greater numbers of Chinese starved to death. More than 60 million lives were lost in the two world wars. Indirect losses owing to a declining birthrate and rising mortality were even more significant.
For many millennia the population increased very slowly. According to rough calculations, at the end of the Paleolithic period (about the 15th millennium B.C.) the population reached 3 million. At the end of the Mesolithic period (7000 B.C.) it was 10 million, and by the end of the Neolithic period (2000 B.C.), 50 million. At the beginning of the Common Era the earth’s population was about 230 million. During the Mesolithic period the population increased by approximately 15 percent every 1,000 years. With the emergence of herding and farming during the Neolithic period, the rate of population growth accelerated sharply, and the population increased by 40 percent every 1,000 years. In the last 2,000 years B.C. the population increased by more than 4.5 times.
In the first millennium A.D. continued population growth came into conflict with the low level of development of productive forces. The growth rate declined, and the population rose by only 20 percent in 1,000 years. By the year 1000 the earth’s population was 275 million; by 1500 it had increased to 450
Table 1. World population dynamics in the 20th century	Table 1. World population dynamics in the 20th century	Table 1. World population dynamics in the 20th century	Table 1. World population dynamics in the 20th century	Table 1. World population dynamics in the 20th century	Table 1. World population dynamics in the 20th century	Table 1. World population dynamics in the 20th century	Table 1. World population dynamics in the 20th century	Table 1. World population dynamics in the 20th century
 	 	 	 	Population (millions) 	 	 	 	Ratio of 1974 to 1900 population
 	1900 	1920 	1940 	1950 	1960 	1970 	1974 	Ratio of 1974 to 1900 population
1Territory now part of the USSR 	1Territory now part of the USSR 	1Territory now part of the USSR 	1Territory now part of the USSR 	1Territory now part of the USSR 	1Territory now part of the USSR 	1Territory now part of the USSR 	1Territory now part of the USSR 	1Territory now part of the USSR
USSR .......... 	1321 	1581 	195 	180 	214 	243 	252 	1.91
Europe (excluding the USSR) .......... 	300 	329 	380 	392 	425 	462 	474 	1.58
Asia (excluding the USSR) .......... 	915 	966 	1,244 	1,356 	1,645 	2,056 	2,240 	2.45
Africa .......... 	120 	141 	191 	217 	270 	344 	387 	3.23
North America and Central America .......... 	105 	147 	184 	218 	267 	321 	340 	3.24
South America .......... 	39 	61 	90 	110 	145 	190 	216 	5.54
Australia and Oceania .......... 	6 	9 	11 	13 	16 	19 	21 	3.50
Total .......... 	1,617 	1,811 	2,295 	2,486 	2,982 	3,635 	3,930 	2.43
million (an increase of 64 percent in 500 years). During the epoch of the primitive accumulation of capital the population growth rate was more significant than in previous epochs. Population grew particularly in the 19th century, in the epoch of the flowering of capitalism. In 1650 the earth’s population was 550 million—that is, it had increased by 22 percent in 150 years. By 1800 it was 906 million (a 65 percent increase in 150 years); by 1850, 1.17 billion; and by 1900, 1.617 billion. In the late 19th century and the early 20th the growth rate declined, but after World War II it rose.
In the last three and a quarter centuries (1650–1974) the population of the earth has increased sevenfold. The first doubling of population took almost 200 years; the second, less than 100 years; and the last (despite the negative consequences of World War II), just 50 years. At the present rate of growth, the earth’s population may double again in about 35 years. According to forecasts made by the UN, the world population will reach 6–7 billion by the year 2000.
The sharply increased rate of world population growth is due to the steady drop in the mortality, accompanied by the maintenance of a high birthrate in the countries liberated from colonial and semicolonial dependence, which account for up to 80 percent of world population growth. From 1968 to 1973 the average birthrate for the entire world was 34 per 1,000 inhabitants; the average mortality was 14 per 1,000; and the natural increase was 20 per 1,000, or about 75 million a year. In most of the Asian, African, and Latin American countries the birthrate is higher than 35–45 per 1,000, the mortality is 12—20 per 1,000, and the natural increase is 20–30 per 1,000, and in some countries, even higher. In the developed countries of Europe and America the birthrate is two to three times lower, the mortality is steady at ten to 12 per 1,000, and the natural increase ranges from two to ten per 1,000.
The mortality is closely associated with a country’s level of socioeconomic development, the material condition of the population, and the quality of the public health system. A decline in mortality was first observed in Europe, which had surpassed other parts of the world in its development. The USSR has one of the world’s lowest death rates. In the developing countries a sharp decrease (more than half) in the mortality was achieved in a relatively short time after World War II, primarily as a result of the fight against infant mortality, epidemics, and acute infectious illnesses.
Because the margins for decreasing the mortality are relatively small, especially in the developed countries, changes in the natural increase in population depend on changes in the birthrate. The attitude toward the birthrate depends primarily on traditions, which often remain powerful even after the socioeconomic conditions that engendered them have undergone fundamental change. The main reason for the high and virtually unchanging birthrates in the developing countries is that these countries have preserved the tradition of having large numbers of children. This tradition, which arose as a natural reaction to very high death rates in past historical periods, has been maintained by the religions that took hold in the developing countries. The tradition of early marriage, which is universally encountered in these countries, also has an important effect on the birthrate. The decline in the birthrate in the developed countries can be explained by the increase in the urban population, the more extensive involvement of women in social production, a rise in women’s educational and cultural level, a decrease in infant mortality, and the trend toward late marriage.
Some bourgeois scholars describe the accelerated growth of population after World War II as a “population explosion” and point to the unsubstantiated overpopulation problem. According to them, the disproportion between population growth and the rate of increase in economic potential raises doubts as to whether it will be possible to provide the world’s population with food. Such “theories” are based on lack of confidence in scientific advances and the social transformation of society. Of course, in the developing countries the backwardness of the agricultural economy, low national income, mass unemployment, and illiteracy make the rapid growth of population a source of difficulties in economic transformations. Many of these countries are developing programs to control the birthrate. But the fundamental solution to the problem of controlling birthrates and ensuring food for the population of these countries is linked with radical socioeconomic transformations, with freeing national economies from dependence on foreign countries, with the growth of industry and cities, with the development of education, with scientific progress, and with the elimination of archaic holdovers in everyday life, as well as with many other factors.
It is possible that in the future, humanity will be forced to stabilize its population, but that will not be very difficult if certain social relations have been established. This was pointed out by Engels: “There is, of course, an abstract possibility that the human race will grow so large that it will be forced to put an end to this growth. But if communist society is ever forced to regulate the production of people, just as it will already have regulated the production of things, then it and it alone will be able to do this without difficulty” (K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 35, p. 124).
With the decrease in the mortality and especially in the infant mortality rate, the average life expectancy increases. As recently as the 19th century the average life expectancy was only 35 years in Europe. Today it is 68–70 years in North America and Europe, 50–55 years in Latin America, 40–50 years in Asia, and under 40 years in Africa. In a large majority of countries the average life expectancy of women is greater than that of men. The increase in life expectancy has led to a rise in the proportion of older people in the population—that is, the population as a whole is aging.
The sex and age composition of population varies a great deal, depending on the country. The number of men in the world slightly exceeds the number of women. (Men account for 50.2 percent of the world population, and women for 49.8 percent.) In most of the economically developed countries, however, there are more women than men. In Europe (excluding the Soviet Union) there are 18 million more women than men, and in the Soviet Union, 18.6 million more (Jan. 1, 1973). To a considerable extent, this is a result of losses of male population during the two world wars. Characteristic of most of the developing countries is a greater number of men than women. (For example, there are 55 million more men in Asia than women.) The number of men markedly exceeds the number of women in the countries of Southern and Eastern Asia (Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, and China).
The proportion of young people (age zero to 14) in the world population is 37 percent; of people age 15–60, 55 percent; and of people over 60, 8 percent. Countries with high birth and death rates (that is, with low life expectancies) are characterized by a higher percentage of young people and a lower percentage of old people. In Africa, for example, 43 percent of the population is between age zero and 14, but only 5 percent is over 60. In South and Central America the corresponding figures are 43 percent and 6 percent, and in Asia, 42 percent and 5 percent. For the countries of North America the corresponding figures are 29 percent and 14 percent; for Europe, 25 percent and 16 percent; and for the USSR, 29 percent and 12 percent.
Migrations have played a very important part in the settlement of the earth and in the formation of races and peoples, as well as in the geographic redistribution of population.
About 35 percent of the world population lives in cities. The proportion of the urban population is rising steadily because its growth rate is more than twice that of the population as a whole. In Australia and Oceania, 62 percent of the population is urban; in Europe (excluding the Soviet Union), 59 percent; in America, 59 percent; in non-Soviet Asia, 23 percent; and in Africa, 20 percent. For individual countries, the highest urban population figures are 83 percent in Great Britain and Australia, followed by 82 percent in the Federal Republic of Germany and 74 percent in the USA. The world’s more than 1,960 large cities (more than 100,000 inhabitants) are inhabited by about 20 percent of the entire human race.
The average population density of the world is 27 inhabitants per sq km, but the population is very unevenly distributed. In Australia and Oceania, for example, the average population density is two per sq km, and in Europe (excluding the USSR), 97. The lowest population density in Europe is in Iceland (two per sq km), and the highest is in the Netherlands (365 per sq km). In Asia the Mongolian People’s Republic has the lowest density (0.8), and Bangladesh has the highest (about 500). The range of population densities is even greater within particular countries. Seventy percent of the entire world population lives in the most densely populated regions, which occupy 7 percent of the earth’s land area. About 30 percent of the land area is not inhabited at all.
There are about 2,000 peoples in the world, including more than 100 in the USSR. As a result of long historical development some of them have become nations inatsii, nations in the historical sense), others are nationalities (narodnosti), and still others are groups of tribes. National and ethnic groups vary widely in population, from hundreds of millions (the Chinese, Hindustani, Russians, Americans, Bengals, and Japanese) to a few hundred or even a few dozen (the Andamanese [Mincopie] in India, the Toala in Indonesia, the Botocudos in Brazil, and the Alacalufs and Yahgans in Argentina and Chile). Fifty-six national and ethnic groups, each of which has a population of more than 10 million, constitute 76 percent of the entire human race.
All peoples belong to linguistic families and groups. The largest of the linguistic families are the Indo-European (47 percent of the world population), the Sino-Tibetan (22 percent), the Austronesian (5 percent), the Hamito-Semitic (4.4 percent), the Dravidian (4 percent), and the Bantu (3 percent). More than 40 percent of the entire human race speaks one of the five most common languages (Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish, and Russian). The Russian language, which has been voluntarily chosen by all the peoples of the USSR as the common language for communication, is the native language of 142 million people. In the 1970 census an additional 42 million inhabitants of the USSR named Russian as a second language, in which they were fluent.
Most of the countries of the world are multinational. In certain countries there are between a few dozen and hundreds of peoples (for examples, the USSR, India, Indonesia, China, Pakistan, and Iran). Countries inhabited by a single nation are comparatively rare (Japan, Korea, Bangladesh, the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, and several European countries). Many peoples (the Kurds, the Baluchis, the Bengals, and the Punjabis in Asia and the Malinke [Mandingo] and the Ewe in Africa) live in two or more different countries.
Because religion has exercised and continues to exercise a notable influence on the society and politics of many countries, analysis of the number of believers and the geographic distribution of religions is very important. Although records of religious affiliation are kept in many countries, the reliability of available data is doubtful, because many estimates are rough and tendentious. The most widespread world religion is Christianity, which is subdivided into three main branches: Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism. (The last of these includes many groups and sects, such as the Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans, Baptists, and Methodists.) Islam, which has two main branches (Sunnism and Shiism), and Buddhism are also considered world religions. Hinduism (practiced primarily in India) and Shintoism (Japan) are also very important religions. Many tribal religions are found among the peoples of the interior regions of Asia, Africa, and South America. Although there is complete freedom of religion in the USSR and other socialist countries, most of the people are nonbelievers. The number of nonbelievers is growing in the capitalist countries (for example, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark).
An overwhelming majority of the peoples of the world live in monogamous families. In some (primarily Muslim) countries in Asia and Africa polygyny (more than one wife) is permitted. Among several numerically small peoples in southern India and Nepal polyandry (more than one husband) is allowed. However, polygyny and polyandry are gradually disappearing. In all countries rural people marry younger than urban people. Almost everywhere, women marry younger than urban men. The percentage of men and women who do not marry at all ranges in different countries from 3–5 percent to 10–12 percent, reaching 18–20 percent in countries where there is a disproportion between the sexes.
The level of education and literacy of the population is an important sign of a country’s socioeconomic development. Between 1960 and 1970 the percentage of illiterates in the adult world population (people over 15 years of age) dropped from 40 to 35, but the absolute number of illiterates increased by 70 million. There are more than 800 million illiterates in the world. In most of the Asian and African countries more than 50 percent of the population is illiterate, and in some countries, 80–90 percent. In the socialist countries illiteracy has been virtually eradicated.
The level of participation of the population in labor and the distribution of working people in various branches of the economy depend on the social system and the condition of the country’s productive forces. The statistical systems of the socialist countries divide the entire population into persons who receive wages or have income from their occupations, persons who are dependent on the state and cooperative organizations, and persons who are dependent on private individuals. The statistical systems of the capitalist countries deal primarily with the labor force, which usually includes entrepreneurs and large landowners, as well as working people and small producers. Because there is no unemployment in the socialist countries, the category of economically active population is synonymous with the employed population. In 1970 the world labor force was estimated to be 1.5 billion, or 41.3 percent of the world population (54.1 percent of the men and 28.5 percent of the women). Between 1950 and 1970 this figure increased by 435 million. The main reason for the rise in the percentage of employed persons is the entry of women into production. By countries, the employed population ranges from 25 percent to 50 percent of the total. The capitalist countries are characterized by chronic unemployment and underemployment.
Almost three-fifths of the world’s labor force is employed in agriculture; about a fifth in industry; and more than a fifth in trade, transportation, communications, and the service industries.
The class structure of the world population is constantly changing. Exploiter classes have been eliminated in the socialist countries. In the capitalist countries class polarization is becoming more extreme. About 70 percent of the labor force in the developed capitalist countries consists of workers and office employees (about 35 percent workers); 10–15 percent are peasants; 5–10 percent, members of the petite bourgeoisie; and 3–4 percent, members of the large and middle bourgeoisie and landed aristocracy. In the developing countries the peasantry is the largest class, and the main group in the working class is the agricultural proletariat.
In mid-1974 the population of the USSR was more than 252 million. Despite the grave consequences of the wars imposed on the country, since 1913 the population has grown by 93 million persons, or 58.5 percent. Between 1913 and 1974 the urban population rose from 18 percent to 59 percent of the total population. The ratio of men to women, which was disturbed as a result of World War II, has begun to level out: in 1973 there was an equal number of men and women in the age brackets up to 46, and 83 percent of the total population had been born after the Great October Revolution. The mortality had dropped by almost 3.5 times since the prerevolutionary period, infant mortality had declined more than 11 times, and the average life expectancy had increased from 32 to 70 years.
The socialist law of population, which provides by plan for complete employment and for the rational use of labor resources, is in operation in the USSR. According to the 1970 census, the number of persons employed in the national economy was 115.5 million, or 47.8 percent of the total population. In the able-bodied age groups, 92.4 percent of the people were engaged in study or in work in the national economy in 1970 (82 percent in 1959). Workers and office employees accounted for more than two-thirds of the population; the remaining third is made up of kolkhoz peasants.
The USSR, where as late as 1926, 43.4 percent of the population over nine years of age was illiterate, has completely eliminated illiteracy. One of the greatest achievements of socialism has been implementation by the Communist Party of the Leninist nationality policy, a policy of equality and friendship among peoples. A new historical community, the Soviet people, has emerged in the USSR.
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Naselenie mira: Spravochnik Edited by B. Is. Urlanis. Moscow, 1965.
Kurs demografii. Edited by A. Ia. Boiarskii. Moscow, 1967.Valentei, D. I. Teoriia i politika narodonaseleniia. Moscow, 1967.Kozlov, V. I. Dinamika chislennosti narodov. Moscow, 1969.
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Category:Geography
Category:Sociology