PRB's 2005 World Population Data Sheet
Reveals Persisting Global Inequalities in Health and Well-Being

For more information, contact: Ellen Carnevale, 202-939-5407; ecarnevale@prb.org

(Washington, DC) – As world leaders focus this summer on global poverty alleviation, deep inequalities in not only income but also health and well-being continue to plague many countries around the world.

The Population Reference Bureau's just-released 2005 World Population Data Sheet provides new and essential information on just how much separates rich from poor. Even in a world where rates of both infant mortality and population growth have been generally declining, and where both life expectancy and girls' education have been generally rising:

• More than one-half of the world's people live below the internationally defined poverty line of less than U.S. $2 a day—including 97 percent in Uganda, 80 percent in Nicaragua, 66 percent in Pakistan, and 47 percent in China, according to data from the World Bank.

• Nearly one-third of rural residents worldwide lack access to safe drinking water.

• The use of modern contraceptives is more common among wealthy women than poor women in nearly all countries, and the gap is particularly pronounced in the poorest countries, in places as diverse as Uganda and Nepal

• Africa's infant mortality rate is nearly 15 times that of the developed world.

• The more developed world uses over 5 times the energy per capita used by the less developed world. North America uses over 8 times as much energy per person as does Latin America.

"These issues are all intrinsically linked," says Bill Butz, PRB's president. "You can't alleviate poverty if large disadvantaged populations don't have basic services such as health care and safe drinking water."

Examples of these linkages abound in the 2005 World Population Data Sheet, which provides up-to-date demographic, health, and environment data for all the countries and major regions of the world.

For example, 73 percent of Tanzania's population is living on less than $2 a day, only 20 percent of its married women of reproductive age use modern methods of contraception, and only 62 percent of its rural population has access to clean drinking water. Life expectancy at birth in Tanzania now stands at only 44 years because of the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS.

"The demographic, health, and economic contrasts among Poland, Tanzania, and Argentina, three countries with equal population sizes today, illustrate the differing challenges faced by rich and poor countries," says Carl Haub, PRB senior demographer and the 2004 World Population Data Sheet's author.

Sample Figures from the 2005 World Population Data Sheet

	Poland	Tanzania	Argentina
Population 2005	38.2 million	36.5 million	38.6 million
Population 2050 (projected)	32.4 million	71.4 million	53.7 million
Lifetime births per woman	1.2	5.7	2.4
Percentage of population below age 15	17	45	27
Percent of population age 65+	13	3	10
Life expectancy at birth	75	44	74
Infant deaths per 1,000 live births	6.8	68	16.8
Percent of adults with HIV/AIDS	0.1	7.0	0.7
Percent of population living on less than $2 a day	less than 2	73	14

"Dramatically different age structures and fertility rates will mean that the populations of many less-developed countries will continue to grow more rapidly than those in Europe," says Haub. For instance, while Tanzania and Poland now have similar population sizes, Tanzania will have more than twice as many people as Poland in 2050.

Other highlights from the 2005 Data Sheet:

• World population growth will continue. World population has reached 6.5 billion in 2005 and should reach 7 billion in about seven years. Ninety-nine percent of that growth will be in developing countries.

• U.S. population growth will continue. The United States is projected to remain the third most-populous country (behind India and China) through 2050. But the overall high standard of living for the United States masks large and persisting racial, ethnic, and geographic differences in health and economic well-being.

• Fertility declines have stalled in some countries. In countries such as Kenya and Turkey, fertility rates have hit plateaus after earlier substantial declines.

For a copy of the 2005 World Population Data Sheet or to interview a PRB staff member on its findings, please contact Ellen Carnevale, ecarnevale@prb.org, 202-939-5407. The Data Sheet is also online at www.prb.org.